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THE ADDRESS 

W THE SOUTHERN AND WESTERN 

LIBERTY CONVENTION, 

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES; 



THE 



ROCEEDINGS AND RESOLUTIONS OF THE CONVENTION; 



THE LETTERS OF 

IIHU EUERITT, WM. H. SEWAUB, WILLIAM JAY, 
CASSIUS M. CLAY, WILLIAM GOODELL, 
THOMAS EARLE AND OTHEES. 



CINCINNATI : 

PRINTED AT THE GAZETTE OFFICE. 
1845. 



testation of "the Supreme Judge of the world" 
to the rectitude of their purposes. 

After a protracted and dubious struggle the 
independence of the American Republic was 
at length achieved, and the attention of Con- 
gress was turned to the establisiiment and ex- 
tension of free institutions. Beyond tlie Alle- 
ghany Mountains, then the western limit of 
civilization, stretched a vast Territory, un- 
trodden except by tlie savage, but destined in 
the liope and faith of tlie patriots of the Revo- 
lution to be tlie seat of mighty states. To this 
territory, during the war just terminated, vari- 
ous States had set up conflicting claims: while 
the Congress had urged upon all tbe cession of 
their several pretensions for the common good. 
The recommendations of Congress prevailed. 
Among the States wliieli signalized their pa- 
triotism by tlic cession of claims lo Western 
Territory, Virginia was pre-eminen) ly distin- 
guished, both by the magnitude of her grant 
and the spirit in which it was made. The 
claim of Virginia comprehended almost all 
that is now Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. She 
yielded it all, almost with no otiier condition 
than that the territory should be disposed of for 
the common benefit and finally erected into 
Republican States. The absence of all stipu- 
lations in behalf of slaveiy in these cessions, 
and especially in that of Virginia, furnishes 
strong evidence of the prevalence of anti-sla- 
very sentiment at that day. But the action of 
Congress in relation to the Territory thus ac- 
quired, supplies decisive ])roof. 

It was in 1787, that Congress promulgated 
the celebrated Ordinance for the Government 
of the Territorjs northwest of the River Ohio. 
In this ordinance for the purpose of "extending 
the fundamental princi])les of civil and religi- 
ous liberty; * * to fix and establish those prin- 
ciples as the basis of all laws, constitutions and 
governments, which forever tliereaftershould be 
formed in said Territory," Congress established 
"certain articles of compact between the ori- 
ginal States and the people and States in the 
territory to remain forever* unalterable, unless 
by common consent." One of these articles of 
compact declared that there should be "neither 
slavery nor involuntary servitude in the terri- 
tory, otherwise than in the punishment of 
crimes;" providing, however, that the right of 
retaking fugitives from service should be pre- 
served to the citizens of the original States. 
This ordinance was adopted by the unanimous 
vote of all the States, there being but a single 
individual negative, wliicli was given by a 
member from New-York. Upon the question 
of excluding slavery we may fairly assume that 
there was entire unanimity. 

It seems to us impossible to conceive of a 
more significant indication of National Policy. 
The Congress was about to fix forever the rela 
tion of five future States to the question of 
slavery. Under the influence of the liberal 
opinions of 1776. Massachusetts, New Hamp- 
shire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont and 
Pennsylvania, had already abolished or had 
taken measures for abolishing slavery within 
their limits. It wasexpccted that other Atlan- 
tic States would follow their example. Tlie 
creation of five non-slaveholding States in the 
West would evidently secure a permanent ma- 
jority on the side of Freedom against Slavery. 
There was, at that time, no other National 
Territory out of which slaveholding States 



could be carved: nor was there any thought of 
acquiring territory with such an object. And 
yet the votes of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, 
North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia 
were given and unanimously given for the posi- 
tive exclusion of slavery from all the vast re- 
gion now possessed by Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Michigan and Wisconsin, and for the virtual 
restriction of the right of reclaiming fugitive 
servants to cases of escape from the original 
States. There was vcrj^ little compromise 
here. There was clear, unqualified decisive 
action in the fulfilment and in renewal of the 
solemn pledge given in 1774, reiterated in 177G, 
and in pursuance of the settled national policy 
of restricting slavery to the original States, 
and of excluding it from all national territory 
and from all new States. 

It is to be borne in mind that neither in this 
ordinance, nor in the nafional acts which pre- 
ceded it, did the Congress undertake to legis- 
late upon the actual personal relations of the 
inhabitants of the original States. They 
sought to impress upon the national character 
and the national policy the stamp of Liberty; 
but they did not, so far as we can see, attempt 
to interfere with tlie internal arrangements of 
any State, however inconsistent those arrange- 
ments might be vvitli that character and policy. 
They expected, howevev, and they had reasori 
to expect, that slavery would be excluded from 
all places of national j urisdiction,and that what- 
ever in the arrangements of particular States 
savored of despotism and oppression, and espe- 
cially that the system oT slavery, which con- 
centrates in itself the whole essence and all 
the attributes of despotism and oppression, 
would give way before the steady action of the 
national faith and the national policy. 

Such was the state of opinion, when the 
Convention for framing the Constitution of the 
United States assembled. The ordinance of 
1787, which was the most significant and deci- 
sive expression of this opinion, was promulga- 
ted while the Constitution-Convention was in 
session. The Constitution, therefore, is to be 
examined with reference to the public acts 
which preceded it, and the prevalent popular 
sentiment. 

And the first thing which arresis the atten- 
tion of the enquirer, is the remarkable pream- 
ble which is prefixed to the operating clauses 
of the instrument, in which the objects to be 
attained by it are particularly enumeratiid. — 
These are "to forma more jicrfect union, estab- 
lish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, pro- 
vide for the common defence, promote the gen- 
eral welfare, and secure the blessings of liber- 
ty." It would be singular, indeed, if a Con- 
stitution adopted for such objects, and under 
such circumstances, should be found to con- 
tain guaranties of slavery. We should expect, 
on the contrary, that, although the national 
government created by it might not be directly 
authorized to act upon the slavery already ex- 
isting in the States, all power to create or con- 
tinue the system by national sanction, would 
be carefully withheld, and some safeguards 
would be provided against its further extension. 
And such, in our judgment, was the true effect 
of the Constitution. We are not prejjared to 
deny, on the one hand, that several clauses of 
the instrument were intended to refer to slaves; 
nor to admit, on the other, all the consequences 
which the friends of slavery would deduce from 



tlicse clauses. We abstain from these ques- 
tions. It is enough for our purpose, that it 
seems clear, that neither the framcrs of tlie 
Constitution, nor the people who adopted it, 
intended to violate the pledges given in the 
covenant of 1774, in the declaration of 1770, 
in the ordinance of 1787; that they did not 
purpose to confer on Congress or tlic General 
(jrovcrnmcnt any power to establish or contin- 
ue or sanction slavery any where; that, if tlicy 
did not intend to authorize direct national leg- 
islation for the removal of the slavery existing 
in particular States, under their local laws, they 
did intend to keep the action of tlie national 
government free from all connection willi tiic 
system; to discounlcnance and discourage il 
in the States; and to favor the abolition of it 
by Slate uutlioriiy, a result, then, generally ex- 
pected; and finally to provide against itsfurther 
exlension by confining the power to acquire 
new territory, and admit new Slates to the 
General Government, the line of wiiose policy 
was clearly marked out by the ordinance and 
preceding public acts. 

We cannol lliink that any unprejudiced stu 



holding, and renders the continuance of slavery 
as a legal relation in any place of exclusive na- 
tional jurisdiction impossible. 

For, what is slavery ? It is the complete and 
absolute subjection of one person to the control 
and disposal of another person, by legalized 
force. We need not argue that no per.son can 
be, rightfully, compelled to submit to such con- 
trol and disposal. All such subjection must 
originate in force; and, private force not being 
strong enough to accomplish the purpose, pub- 
lic force in the form of law must lend its aid. 
The Government comes to the help of the 
individual slaveholder, and punishes resist- 
ance to his will and compels submission. — 
Thk GovEiiN.MKNT, therefore, in the case of 
every individual slave is the real enslaver, 
depriving each person enslaved of all lib- 
erty and all property, and all that makes life 
dear, without imputation of crime or any legal 
process whatsoever. This is precisely what the 
Government of the United States is forbidden 
to do by the Constitution. Tlie Government 
of the United States, therefore, cannot create 
or continue the relation of master and slave. 



dent of the Constiiution, examining it in the Nor can that relation be created or continued 
light of precedent action, and contemporary in any place, district or territory over which 



opinion, can arrive at cnv other conclusion 
tlian this. No amendment of the constitution 
wou'd be needed to adapt i: 'o the new condi- 
tion of things, were evei'v Stale in the Union 
to a'uolish slavery forthwiih. Tliere is not a 
line of I'le instrument wliicli refers io slavery 
as a national inslitut ion, to be upheld by na- 
tional law. t)n the contrary every clause 
which ever has been or can be construed as re- 
fcrrin'j to slavery, treats it as the creature of 
State lew, and dcpcnclcnt wholly upon State 
law for its existence and eonlinuancc. So care- 
ful were the framers of the Constitutiou to 
negative all implies .san«lioQ of slavtlioldin 
tiiat not only were the terms "slave," "slavery," 
and "slavuholding," exelude<l,l)ut even the word 
"servitude," which was at first inserted to ex- 
press the condition, under the local law, of the 
persons who were to be delivered up, should 
tiiey esei'pe from one Slate into another, was, 
on motion of Mr. Randolpii of Virginia, strick- 
en out, and "service"' unanimously inserted, 
"the former being thought to express the con- 
dition of slaves, und the latter the obligations 
of free ))ersons." 

Tliat such was tlie general understanding of 
the people will be the more manifest if we ex- 
tend our examination beyond the Constitution 
as originally adopted, to ihc amendments sub- 
sequently incorporated into it. One of tliese 
amendments, as originally ])roposed by Vir- 
ginia, provided that "no freeman sliould be de- 
prived of life, liberty or jiroperty but by the 
law of the land,'''' and was copied, substantiallv, 
from the English Magna Carta, Congress al- 
tered the phraseology by inserting in lieu oi 
the words quoted, "no person sliail be deprived 
of life, liberty, or property, witiioi't die i'ko- 
CESs OF law:" and, thus altered, the proposed 
amendinexit became part of the Constitution. 
We axe avvaro that it lias been held by distin 
guished authority, that the sccJ.ion of the 
amended Constitution, which contains this ))ro- 
visiou, operates as a limitation only on nation- 
al and not ui>on state legislation. Without 
centroverting this opinion, here, it is enough to 
■flay that, at the least, the clause prohibits the 



the jurisdiction of tlic National Government 
is exclusive; for slavery cannot subsist a mo- 
ment after the support of the public force has 
been witlidrawn. 

We need not go further to prove that slave- 
holding in the States can liave no rightful 
sanction or support from national authority, but 
must depend wholly upon the State law for ex- 
istence and continuance. 

We have thus proved, from the Public Acts 
of the Nation, that, up to the time of the adop- 
tion of the Constitution, the people of the Uni- 
ted States were an anti-slavery people; that the 
sanction of the national ajjprobation was never 
given, and never intended to be given, to slave- 
holding; that, on the contrary, the (Government 
oi the I'niled States was expressly forbidden to 
deprive any person of liberty, without due legal 
process; and that the policy of excluding slave- 
ry from all national territory, and restricting 
it within the limits of the original States, was 
early adopted and praeticaJly applied. 

Permit us now, fellow citizens, to call your 
attention to the recorded opinions of the Pat- 
riots and Sages of the Revolutionary Era; from 
which you will learn tJiat many of them, so far 
from desiring that the General Government 
should sanction slavery or extend its limits, 
were dis])lcased that it was not, in terms, em- 
powered to take action for its final extinction 
in the States, and. that almost all looked for- 
ward to its final removal by State authority with 
expectation and hope. 

Tlie Preamble of the Abolition Act of Penn- 
sylvania of 1780, exhibits clearly the state of 
many mind.s. "Weaned," says the General As- 
sembly, "by a long course of experience from 
those narrow prejudices and partialities we had 
imbibed, we find our hearts enlarged with kind- 
ness and benevolence towards men of all 
conditions and nations; and we conceive our- 
selves, at this particular period, extraordinarily 
called upon by the blessing we have received, 
to maniiest the sincerity of our professions and 
to give a substantial proof of our gratitude." 

1'he sentiments of Mr. JefTerson are too well 
known to justify large quotations from his wri- 



General Government from sanctioning slave- tings. We invite, however, your attention lo 



two sentences; and wiil observe, in passing, 
that his opinions were shared by almost every 
Virginian of distinguished patriotism or abil- 
ity. 

In his Notes on Virginia, he said: — "I think 
a change already perceptible since the origin 
of the present revolution. The spirit of the 
master is abating, that of the slave is rising 
from the dust, his condition mollifying, the 
way, 1 hope, preparing under the auspices of 
heaven, for a total emancipation; and that is 
disposed, in the order of events, to be with the 
consent of the masters, rather than by their ex 
tirpation." 

On another occasion he said, "Nobody wishes 
more ardently than I to see an abolition no) 
only of the trade, but of the condition of slave- 
ry; and certainly nobody will be more willing 
to encounter every sacrifice for that object." 

In a letter to John F. Mercer, George Wash- 
ington said, "I never mean, unless some parti- 
cular circumstances should compel me to it, 1o 
possess another slave by purcha-e; it being 
among my first wishes to see some plan adopted 
by which slavery in this country may be abol- 
ished by law." 

In a letter to Sir John Sinclair, assigning rea- 
sons for the depreciation of Southern lands, he 
fiaid, "There are in Pennayivania laws for the 
gradual abolition of slavery, which neither Vir- 
ginia nor Maryland have at present, but which 
nothing is more certain than that they must 
have, and at a period not remote." 

General Lee of Virginia, in his "Memoirs of 
the Eevolutionary War," remarked, "The Con- 
stitution of the United States, adopted lately 
with so much difficulty, has effectually provi- 
<led against this evil, (the slave trade,) after a 
few years. It is much to be lamented, that 
having done so much in this way, a ])rovision 
had not been made for the gradual abolition of 
slavery." 

Judge Tucker of Virginia, in a letter to the 
General Assembly of that State in 1796, recom- 
mending the abolition ofslaverj', and speaking 
<of the slavey in Virginia, said, "Should we not 
at the time of the devolution have loosed their 
chains and broken their fetters; or, if the diffi- 
culties and dangers of such an experiment pro- 
hibited the attempt during the convulsions of 
a revolution, is it not our duty to embrace the 
first moment of constitutional health and vigor 
to effectuate so desirable an object and to re- 
move from us a stigma with which our enemies 
will never fail to upbraid us, nor our conscien- 
ees to reproach us?" 

Luther Martin, of Maryland, left the Conven- 
tion before the Constitution was finally comple- 
ted. He opposed its adoption, and assigned, in 
bis report to the Maryland Legislature, as a 
leading reason for his opposition, the absence 
from the instrument of express provisions 
against slavery. He said that it was urged in the 
Convention, "that by the proposed system we 
were giving the General Government full and 
absolute power to regulate Commerce, under 
which general power it would have a right to 
restrain or totally prohibit the slave trade; it 
must therefore appear to tlie world absurd and 
ilisgraccful to the last degree that we should 
except from the exercise of that power, the only 
branch of commerce which is unjustifiable in 
jts nature and contrary to the rights of man- 
Jtind:^that, on the contrary, we ought rather to 



ther importation of slaves, and to authorise the 
General Government, from time to time, to 
make such regulations as should be thought 
most advantageous for the gradual abolition of 
slavery, and the emancipation of the slaves 
which are already in the States." 

James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, signed the 
Constitution, taking a very different view of 
its i>rovisions bearing upon slavery from that of 
Mr. Martin, but agreeing with him entirely as 
to slavery itself In the Ratification Conven- 
tion of Pennsylvania, speaking of the clause 
relating to the power of Congress over the 
slave-trade after twenty years, he said; "I con- 
sider this clause as laying the foundation for 
banishing slavery out of this country. It will 
produce the same kind of gradual change which 
was produced in Pennsylvania; the new States, 
which are to be formed will be under the con- 
trol of Congress in this particular, and slavery 

WILL NEVER I!E INTRODUCIOn AMONG THEM. It 

presents us with the pleasing ])rospect that 
the rights of mankind will be acknowledged 
and established throughout the Union." 

In the Ratification Convention of Massachu- 
setts, Gen. Heath declared that "Slavery was 

CONFLNED TO THE StATES NOW EXISTING: it COuld 

not be ertcnded. By their ordinance Congress 
had declared that tue new States should be 
republican, and have no slnveTij." 

In the Ratification Convention of North 
Carolina, Mr. Iredell, afterwards a Justice of 
the Supreme Court of the United States, ob- 
served, "When the entire abolition of slavery 
takes place, it will be an event which must be 
pleasing to every generous mind and every 
friend of human nature," 

In the Ratification Convention of Virginia, 
Mr. Johnson said, "The principle of cmancii)a- 
( ion has begun since the revolution. Let us do 
wliat we will, it will come round." 

In the course of the debate in the Congrcs.9 
of 1T89, the first under the Constitution, on a 
petition against tlie slave-trade, Mr. Parker, of 
Virginia, remarked that "He hoped Congress 
would do all that lay in their power to restore 
human nature to its inherent privileges, and, if 
possible, wipe off the stigma which America 
la bored under. The inconsistency in our prin- 
ciples, with which we are justly chargedshonld 
be done away, that we may show by our actions 
the pure beneficence of the doctrine which we 
held out to the world in our Declaration of In- 
dependence." In the same debate Mr. Brown, 
of North Carolina observed, "The emancipa- 
tion of the slaves will be effected in time; it 
ought to be a gradual business; but he hoped 
Congress tcould net precipitate it to the great 
injury of the Southern Slates." And Mr. 
Jackson, of Georgia, complained, "That it was 
the fashion of the day to favor the liberty of 
the slaves," 

These citations might be indefinitely multi- 
plied, but we forbear. Well might Mr. Leigh, 
of V irginja, remark in 1832, "I thought, till 
very lately, that it was known to every body, 
that during the revolution and for many years 
after, the abolition of slavery teas a favorite topic 
with many of our ablest statesmen, who enter- 
tained with respect all the schemes which wis- 
dom or ingenuity could suggest for accomplish- 
ing the object." 

Fellow Citizens: The Public Acts and the 
Recorded Opinions of the Fathers of the Revo- 



prohibit expressly in our Constitution the fur jlution are before you. Let us pause here. Let 



tis reflect what would have been the condition 
of the country liad tlie original policy of the 
nation been steadily pursued, and contrast what 
would have been with what is. 

At the lime of the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, 
New Hampshire and Pennsylvania had become 
non-skveholding .States. By the ordinance of 
1787, provision had been made for the erection 
of five other non-slaveholding States. The ad- 
mission of Vermont and the District of Maine, 
as separate States without slavery was also an- 
ticipated. There was no doubt that New-York 
and New Jersey would follow the example of 
Pennsylvania. Thus it was .supposed to be cer- 
tain that the Union would ultimately embrace 
at least fourteen free Stale*, and that slavery 
would be excluded from all territory thereafter 
acquired by the nation, and from all States 
created out of such territory. 

This was liie true understanding upon which 
the Constitution was adopted. It was never 
tiiat new slave States were to be 



imag 



ined 



admitted; unless, perhaps, which seems proba- 
ble, it was contemplated to admit the West- 
ern Districts of Virginia and North Carolina, 
now known as Kentucky and Tennessee, as 
fitutes, without any reference to the slavery 
already established in them. In no event, to 
which our Fathers looked forward, could the 
number of slave States exceed eight, wliilc it 
was almost certain that the number of free 
States would be at least fourteen. It was never 
fiui>posed tiiat slavery was to be a cherished in- 
terest of the country, or even a i)crmanent in- 
stitution of any ^^tate. It was cx]iccted that 
all the States, stiniulatcd by the examples be- 
fore them, and urged by their own avowed 
princii)les recorded in the Declaration, would, 
at no distant day, put an end to slavery with- 
in their res])cctivc limits. So strong was this 
expectation, that Ja.mks Ca-mtdkll, in an ad- 
dress at Philadelphia, biTore the Society of the 
Cincinnati, in 17ti7, which was attended by the 
Constitution-Convention then in sessioii, de- 
clared, "the time is not far distant when our 
sister States, in imitation of our example, shall 
turn their vassals into freemen." And Joua- 
tlian Edwards predicted in 17!) I, that, "in fifty 
years from this lime, it will be as disgraceful 
for a man to hold a negro slave, as to be guilty 
of common robbery or theft." 

It cannot be doubted that, had the original 
policy and original principles of the Govern- 
ment been adhered to, this expectation would 
have been realized. The example and influ- 
ence of the General Government would have 
been on the side of freedom. Slavery would 
have ceased in the District of Columbia imme- 
diately upon the establishment of the Govern- 
ment within its limits. Slavery would have 
disappeared from Louisiana and Florida upon 
the acquisition of those territories by the I'ni 
ted States. No laws would have been enacted, 
no treaties made, no measures taken for the 
extension or maintenance of slavery. Amid 
the rejoicings of all the free, and the congrat- 
ulations of all friends of freedom, the last fet- 
ter would, ere now, have been stricken from 
the last slave, and the Principles and Institu- 
tions of Liberty would have pervaded the en- 
tire land. 

How difTercnt — how sadly diff'erent arc the 
fg.cts of History! Luthek Martin complained 
at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, 



"that when our own liberties were at stake, we 
warmly felt for the common rights of men: the 
danger being thoughtjlo be passed which threat- 
ened ourselves, we are daily growing more and 
more insensible to those rights." This insen- 
sibility continued to increase, and prepared 
the way for the encroachments of the political 
slave power, which originated in the three- 
fifths rule of the Constitution. This rule, de^ 
signed perhaps as a censure upon slavery by 
denying to the slave States the full represent- 
ation to which their population would entitle 
them, has had a very dilTcrent practical efTect. 
It has virtually established in the country an 
aristocracy of slaveholders. It has conferred 
on masters the right of representation for three- 
fifths of their slaves. The representation from 
the slave States in Congress, has always been 
from one-fifth to one-fourth greater than it 
would havo been, were freemen only repre- 
sented. Under the first apportionment according 
to this rate, a district in a free State containing 
thirty thousand free inhabitants Would have 
one representative. A district in a slave State, 
containing three thousand free persons and 
forty-five thousand slaves. Would also have one* 
In the first district a representative could be 
elected only by the majority of five thousand 
votes: in tlic other he would need only the 
majority of five hundred. Of course, the rep- 
resentation from slave States, elected by a 
much smaller constituency, and bound togeth- 
er by a common tie, would generally act in 
concert and always with special regard to the 
interests of masters whose representatives in 
fact they were. Every Aristocracy in the world 
has sustained itself by encroachment, and the 
Aristocracy of slave-holders in this country ha9 
not been an exception to the general truth. 
The nation has always been divided into par- 
ties, and the slave-holders, by making the pro- 
tection and advancement of their peculiar in- 
terests the j)rice of their j)olitical support, have 
generally sueeeedcd in controlling all. This 
influence has greatly increased the insensibil- 
ity to human rights, of which Martin indig- 
nantly complained. It has upheld slavery in 
the District of Columbia and in the Territories 
in spite of the Constitution: it has added to 
the Union five slave States created out of na- 
tional Territories: it has usurped the control 
of our foreign negotiation, and domestic legis- 
lation: it has dictated the choice of the liigh 
otficers of our Government at home, and of our 
national representatives abroad: it has filled 
every department of executive and judicial 
administration with its friends and satellites: 
it has detained in slavery multitudes who are 
;onstitutionally entitled to their freedom : it 
has waged unrelenting war with the most sa- 
cred rights of the free, stifling the freedom of 
speech and of debate, setting at nought the 

ht of petition, and denying in the slave 
States those immunities to the citizens of the 
free, which the Constitution guarantees; and, 
finally, it has dictated the acquisition of an im- 
mense foreign territory, not for the laudable 
purpose of extending the blessings of freedom, 
but with the bad design of diff'using the curse 
of slavery, and thereby consolidating and per- 
petuating its own ascendancy. 

Against this influence, against these infrac- 
tions of the Constitution, against these depar- 
tures from the National policy originallyadopt- 
cd, against these violations of the National 



8 



faith originally pledged, we solemnly protest. 
Nor do we propose only to protest. We recog- 
nize the obligations which rest upon us as de- 
scendants of the Men of the Revolution, as in- 
heritors of the Institutions which they estab- 
lished, as partakers of the blessings which they 
so dearly purchased, to carry forward and per- 
fect their work. We mean to do it, wisely and 
prudently, but with energy and decision. We 
have the example of our Fathers on our side. 
We have the Constitution o( their adoption on 
our side. It is our duty and our purpose to 
rescue the Government from the control of the 
slaveholders; to harmonize its practical admin- 
istration with the provisions of the Constitu- 
tion, and to secure to all, without exception 
and without partiality, the rights which the 
Constitution guaranties. We believe that 
slaveholding in tlie United States is the source 
of numberless evils, moral, social and political; 
that it hinders social progress; that it embit 
ters public and private intercourse; that it dc 
grades us as individuals, as States, and as a Na 
tion; that it holds back our country from c 
splendid career of greatness and glory. We 
are, therefore, resolutely, inflexibly, at all times, 
and under all circumstances, hostile to its lon- 
ger continuance in our land. We believe that 
its removal can be effected peacefully, const! 
tutionally, without real injury to any, with the 
greatest benefit to all. 

We propose to effect this by repealing 
all legislation, and discontinuing all action 
in favor of slaver}', at home and abroad; by 
prohibiting the practice of slaveholding in 
all places of exclusive national jurisdiction, 
in the District of Columbia, in American ves 
sels upon the seas, in forts, arsenals, navy 
yards; by forbidding the employment of slaves 
upon any public work; by adopting resolu- 
tions in Congress declaring that slaveholding 
in all States created out of national territories 
is unconstitutional, and recommending to the 
others the immediate adoption of measures for 
its extinction within their respective limits; 
and by electing and appointing to public sta- 
tion such nTcn, and only such men as openly 
avow our principles, and will honestly carry 
out our measures. 

The constitutionality of this line of action can- 
not be successfully impeached. That it will ter- 
minate, if steadily pursucd,in the utter overthrow 
of slavery at no very distant day, none will doubt. 
We adopt it because we desire, through and by 
the Constitution, to attain the great ends which 
the Constitution itself proposes, the establish- 
ment of justice, and the security of liberty. — 
We insist not, here upon the opinions of some, 
that no slaveholding in any State of the Union 
is compatible with atrueand just construction 
of the Constitution; nor upon the opinions of 
others,that the Declaration of Independence set- 
ting forth the creed of the nation, that all men are 
created equal and endowed by their Creator 
with an inalienable right of liberty, must be 
regarded as the Common Law of America, an 
tecedent to and unimpaired by the Constitu 
tion; nor need we appeal to the doctrine that 
slaveholding is contrary to the Supreme Law of 
the Supreme Ruler, preceding and controlling 
all human law, and binding upon all legislatures 
in the enactment of laws, and upon all courts 
in the administration of justice. We are will- 
ing to take our stand upon propositions gener- 
ally conceded:— that slaveholding is contrary to 



natural right and justice; that it can subsist 
nowhere without the sanction and aid of posi- 
tive legislation; that the Constitution expressly 
prohibits Congress from depriving any person of 
liberty without due process of law. From these 
propositions we deduce, by logical inference, 
the doctrines upon which we insist. We depre- 
cate all discord among the States; but do not 
dread discord so much as we do the subjugation 
of tlie States and the people to the yoke of the 
Slaveholding Oligarchy, We deprecate the 
dissolution of the Union, as a dreadful political 
calamity; but if any of the States shall prefer 
dissolution to submission to the Constitutional 
action of the people on the subject of slavery, 
we cannot purchase their alliance by the sacri- 
fice of inestimable rights and the abandonment 
of sacred duties. 

Such, fellow citizens, are our views, princi- 
ples, and objects. We invite your co-operation 
in the great work of delivering oar beloved 
country from the evils of slavery. No question 
half so important as that of slavery, engages 
the attention of the American people. All oth- 
ers, in fact, dwindle into insignificance in com- 
parison with it. The question of slavery is, and 
until it shall be settled, must be, the paramount 
moral and political question of the day. We, 
at least, so regard it; and, so regarding it, must 
subordinate every other quc!.stion to it. 

It follows as a necessary consequence, that 
wo cannot yield our political support to any 
party which does not take our ground upon 
this question. 

What then is the position of the political par- 
ties of the country in relation to thissubject? — 
One of these parties professes to be guided by 
I he most liberal principles. "Equal and exact 
justice to all men;" "equal rights for all men;" 
"inflexible oppositioTi to oppression," are its 
favorite mottos. It claims to be the true 
friend of popular government, and assumes the 
name of democratic. Among its members are 
doubtless many who cherish its professions as 
sacred principles, and believe that the great 
cause of Freedom and Progress is to be served 
by promoting its ascendancy. But when we 
compare the maxims of the so-called democra- 
tic party with its acts, its hypocrisy is plainly 
revealed. Among its leading members we find 
the principal slaveholders, the Chiefs of the 
Oligarchy. It has never scrupled to sacrifice 
the rights of the free States or of the people to 
the demands of the Slave Power. Like Sir 
Pertinax McSycophant, its northern leaders be- 
lieve that the great secret of advancement lies 
in "bowing well." No servility seems too gross, 
no self-degradation too great, to be submitted 
to. They think themselves well rewarded, if 
the unity of the Party can be preserved, and 
the spoils of victory secured. If, in the distri- 
bution of these spoils, they receive only the 
jackall's share, they content themselves with 
the reflection that little is better than nothing. 
They declaim loudly against all monopolies, all 
special privileges, all encroachments on person- 
al rights, all distinctions founded upon birth, 
and compensate themselves for these efforts of 
virtue by practising the vilest oppression upon 
all their countrymen in whose complexions the 
slightest trace of African derivation can be de- 
tected. 

Profoundly do we revere the maxims of True 
Democracy; they are identical with those of 
True Christianity, in relation to the rights and 



duties of men as citizens. And our reverence I vantage, without sacrificing consistency, self' 
for Democratic Principles is the precise meas- respect, and mutual confidence. While we say 
ure ofour detestation of the policy of those who this, we arc bound to add that were either of 
are penniltcd to shape the action of the Demo- these parties to disappoint our expectations, 
cratic Party. Political concert with that par- and adopt into its national creed as its leading 
ty under its present leadership, is, therefore, w^ic/es, the principles which wc regard as fui?- 
plainly impossible. Nor do we entertain the! damental, and enter upon a course of unfeigned 
hope, which many, no doubt, honestly cherish, [and earnest action against the system of^sla- 
that the professed principles of the party will at j very, we should not hesitate, regarding as we 
length bring it right upon the question of sla- do, the question of slavery as the paramount 
very. Its professed principles have been the question of our day and nation, to give to it 
same for near half a century, and yet the sub- our cordial and vigorous support, until slavery 
jection of the party to the slave power is, at should be no more. 



this moment, as complete as ever. 



pov 

There is no 



With what party, then, shall we act? Or 



prospect of any change for the belter, until shall we act v/ith none? Act, in someway, 
those democrats whose hearts are really posses- we must: for the possession of the right of suf- 
sed by a generous love of liberty for all, and by j frage, tiic right of electing our own law makers 
an honest hatred of oppression, shall manfully j and rulers, imposes upon us the corresponding 
assert their individual independence, and refuse duty of voting for men who will carry out 



their support to the panders of slavery 



the views which we deem of paramount impor- 



■i'here is another party which boasts that it tance and obligation. Act together wc must; 
is conservative in its character. Its watch- j (or upon the questions which wc regard as the 

" the! most vital we arc fuHv agreed We must act 



words are "a tariff"," "a banking system," " 
Union as it is." Among its members, also, 
many sincere opponents of slavery; and the party 
itself, seeking aid in the attainment of power, 
and anxious to carry its favorite measures and 
bound together by no such professed principles 
as secure the unity of the Democratic Party, 
often concedes much to their anti-slavery views. 
It is not unwilling, in those States and parts ol 
States where anti-slavery sentiment prevails, to 
assume an anti-flavcry attitude and claim to 
be an anti-slavery party. Like the Democratic 
party, however, the Whig party maintains 
alliances with the slaveholders. It proposes, in 
its national conventions, no action against sla- 
very. It has no anti-shi very .irticle in its n;>- 
tional creed. Among its leaders and cham- 
pions in Congress and out of Congress, none 
are so honored and trusted as slaveholders in 
practice and in principle. Whatever the Whig 
part}', therefure, concedes to anti-slavery must 
be reluctantly conceded. Its natural position 
is conservative. Its natural line of action is 
to maintain thing? as they are. Its natural 
bond of union is regard for interests rather 
thkn for rights. There are, doubtless, zealous 
opponents of slavery, who are also zealous 
Whigs; but they have not the general confi- 
dence of their party; they are under the ban ol 
the slaveholders; and in any |)ractical anti- 
slavery movement, as, for example, the repeal 
of the laws vviiich sanction slaveliolding in the 
District of Columbia, would meet the deter- 
mined opposition of a large and most influen- 
tial section of the party, not because the people 
of the ircc States would be oppos- d to the mea- 
sure, but because it would be displeasinir to the 



then; act together; and act against slavery and 
oppression. Acting thus, we necessarily act as 
a party; for what is a party, but a body of citi- 
zens, acting together politically, in good faith, 
upon common principles, for a common object? 
And if there be a party already in existence, 
animated by the same motives and aiming at 
the same results as ourselves, wc must act with 
and in that party. 

Thiit there is such a party, is well known. — 
It is the Liberty Party of the United States. 
Its principles, measures and objects we cordial- 
ly approve. It founds itself upon the great 
cardinal principle of true Democracy and of 
true Christianity, the brotherhood of the Hu- 
man Family. It avows its i)urpoge to wage 
implacable war against slaveliolding as the di- 
rest form of oppression, and then against every 
other species of tyranny and inj ustice. Its views 
on the subject of slavery in this country are, 
in theniain, the sameasthose which we haveset 
ibrlh in this address. Its members agree to re- 
gard the extinction of slavery as the most 
important end which can, at this time, be pro- 
posed to political action; and they agree to dif- 
fer as to other questions of minor importitnce, 
such as those of trade and currency, believing 
that these can be satislactorily disposed of, 
when the question of slavery shall be settled, 
and that, until then, they cannot be satisfac- 
torily disposed of at all. 

The rise of such a party as this was anticipated 
long before its actual organization, by the sin- 
gle-hearted and patriotic Charles Follcn, a Ger- 
man by birth, but a true American by adop- 
tion and in spirit. "If there ever is to be in 



oligarchy and fatal to party unity. We are 'this country,'" he said in 18.36, "a party that 
constrained to think, therefore, that all expec-jshall take "its name and character, not from 



tation of efficient anti-slavery action from the 
Whig party as now organized, will prove delu- 
sive. Nor do we perceive any probability of a 
change in its organization, separating its anti- 



particular liberal measures or popular men, but 
from its uncompromising and consistent adhe- 
rence to Freedom — a truly liberal and thorough- 
ly republican party, it must direct its first de- 



siavery from its pro-slavery constituents, andjcidcd efl^ort against the grossest form, the most 
leaving the former in possession of the name! complete manifestation of oppression; and, ha 



and influence of the party. With the Whig 
party, therefore, as at pre.tcnt organiz'ed, it is 
as impossible for us whose mottos are "Equal 
Rights and Fair Wages for all" and "the Union 
as it should be," to act in alliance and concert, 
as it is for us so to act with the so called Demo- 
cratic party. We cannot choose between these 
parties for the sake of any local or partial ad- 
O 



ving taken anti-slavery ground, it must carry 
out the principle of Liberty in all its conse- 
(|uences. It must support every measure con- 
ducive to the greatest possible individual and 
social, moral, intellectual, religious and politi- 
cal freedom, whether that measure be brought 
forward by inconsistent slaveholders or consist 
ent freemen. It must embrace the whole 



10 



spliere of human action; walcliing and oppo- 
sing the slightest illiberal and anti-republican 
tendency, and concentrating its whole force 
and inflacnco against slavery itself, in com[)ar- 
ison witii which every otlier species of tyranny 
is tolerable.and by which every other is strength- 
ened and justified." 

Thus wrote Charles Follen in 1836. It is 
impossible to express better the want which en- 
lightened lovers of liberty felt of a real Demo- 
cratic party in the country — Democratic not 
in name only, but in deed and in truth. In 
this want, thus felt, the Liberty Party had its 
origin, and so long as this want remains other- 
wise unsatisfied, the Liberty party must exist; 
not as a mere Abolition party, but as a truly 
Democratic party, which aims at the extinc- 
tion of slavery, because slaveholding is incon- 
sistent with Democratic principles; aims at 
it, not as an ultimate end, but as the most im- 
portant present object; as a great and necessa- 
ry step in the work of reform; as an illustrious 
era in the advancement of society, to be 
wrought out by its action and instrumentality. 
The Liberty party of 1H45 is, in truth, the Lib- 
erty party of 177() revived. It is more: It is 
the party of Advancement and Freedom, which 
has, in every ago, and with varying success, 
fouglit the battles of Human Liberty, against 
the party of False Conservatism and Slavery. 

And now, fellow-citizens, permit us to ask, 
whether you will not give to this party the aid 
o.f your votes, and of your counsels? Its aims 
are lofty, and noble, and pacific; its means are 
simple and unobjectionable. Why should it 
not have your co-operation? 

Are you already anti-slaTery men? Let us 
ask, is it not far better to act with those with 
whom you agree on the fundamental point of 
.slavery, and swell the vote and augment the 
moral force of anti-slavery, rather than to act 
with those with whom you agree only on minor 
points; and thus, for the time, swell a vote and 
augment an influence which must be counted 
against the Liberty movement, in the vain hope 
that those with whom you thus act now, will, 
at some indefinite future period, act with you 
lor the overthrow of slavery? There are, per- 
haps, nearly equal numbers of you in each of 
the pro-slavery parties,honestly opposed to each 
other on questions of trade, currency, and ex- 
tension of territory, but of one mind on the 
great question of slavery; and yet, you suiFer 
yourselves to be played oft' against each other 
Ijy parties which agree in nothing except hos- 
tility to the great measure of positive action 
against slavery, which seems to you and is of 
pajamount importance? What can you gain 
•by this course? What may you not gain by 
laying your minor dilFcrences on the altar of 
duty, and uniting as one man, in one party, 
against slavery? Then every vote would tell 
for freedom, and would encourage the friends 
of Liberty to fresh eflforts. Now every vote, 
whether you intend it so or not, tells for slave- 
ry, and operates as a discouragement and hin- 
drance to those who are contending for Equal 
Rights. Let us entreat you not to persevere in 
your suicidal,fratricidal course; but to renounce 
at once all pro slavery alliances, and join the 
friends of Liberty. It is not the question now 
whether a Liberty party shall be organized: it 
is organized and in the field. The real question, 
and the only real question, is: Will you, so far 
as your votes and influence go, hasten or retard 
the day of its triumph? 



Are you men -of the Free States? And hafis 
you not suff"ered enough of wrong, of insult, 
and of contumely from the slaveliolding Oli- 
garchy? Have you not been taxed enough for 
the support of slavery? Is it not cnougli that 
all the powers of the government are exerted for 
its maintenance, and that all the Departments 
of the Government are in the hands of the 
Slave Power? How long will you consent by 
your votes to maintain slavery at the seat of 
the National Government, in violation of the 
Constitution of your country, and thus, give 
your direct sanction to the whole dreadful sys- 
tem? How long will you consent to be repre- 
sented in the National Councils by men who 
will not dare to a.sscrt their own rights or yours 
in the presence of an arrogant aristocracy: and, 
in your State Legislatures, by men whose ut- 
most height of courage and manly daring, wlien 
your citizens are imprisoned, without allegation 
of crime, in slave States, and your agents, sent 
for their relief, are driven out, as you would 
scourge from your premises an intrusive cur, is 
to PROTEST and submit. Rouse up. Men of the 
Free States, for shame, if not for duty! Awake 
to a sense of your degraded position. Behold 
your president, a slaveholder; his cabinet com- 
posed of slaveholders or their abject instru- 
ments; the two houses of Congress submissive 
and servile; your representatives with for- 
eign nations most of them, slaveholders 
your supreme administrators of justice, most 
of them slaveholders; your officers of tlie 
army and navy most of them slaveholders. — 
Observe the results. What numerous appoint- 
ments of pro-slavery citizens of slave States to 
national employments! What careful exclu- 
sion of every man who holds the faith of Jeff"ei- 
.-on and Washington in respect to slavery, and 
believes with Madison "that it is wrong to 
admit in the Constitution the idea of property 
in man," from national offices of honor and 
trust! What assiduity in negotiations for the 
reclamation of slaves, cast, in the Providence 
of God, on foreign shores, and for the extension 
of the markets of cotton and rice and tobacco, 
a3fe, and of men! What zeal on the judicial 
bench in wresting the Constitution and the law 
to the purposes of slav-eholders, by shielding 
kidnappers from merited punishment, and para- 
lyzing State legislation for the security of per- 
sonal liberty! What readiness in legislation 
to serve the interests of the Oligarchy by un- 
constitutional provisions for the recovery of fu- 
gitive slaves and by laying heavy duties on 
slave-labor products, thereby compelling non- 
slaveholding laborers to support slaveholders in 
idleness and luxury! When shall these things 
have an end? How long shall servile endur- 
ance be protracted? It is for you, fellow-citi- 
zens, to determine. The shameful partiality 
to slaveholders and slavery which has so long 
prevailed and now prevails in the administra- 
tion of the government will cease when you 
determine that it shall cease, and act accord- 
ingly- 

Are you non-slaveholders of the slave States? 
Let us ask you to consider what interest you 
have in the system of slavery. What benefits 
does it confer on you? What blessings does it 
promise to your children? ^Tou constitute the 
vast majority of the population of the slave 
States. The aggregate votes of all the slave- 
holders do not exceed one hundred and fifty 
thousand, while the votes of the non-slavehold- 



11 



era will number at least six hundred thousand, 
supposing each adult male to possess a vote. — 
It is clear, therefore, that tiie continuance of 
slavery depends upon your sufiragos. We re- 
peat, what interest have you in supporting the 
system? 

Slavery diminishes your population and hin- 
ders your prosperity. CompareNew York witii 
Virginia, Ohio with Kentucky, Arkansas with 
Michigan, Florida with Iowa. Need we say 
more? 

It prevents general education. It is not the 
interest of slaveholders that poor non-slavehold- 
ers should be educated. 'I'lie census of 184U 
reveals tiie astounding facts that more than 
one-seventeenth of the white population in the 
slave States are unable to read or write, while 
not a hurulred and fiftieth part of the same 
class in the free are in the same condition, and 
that tliere are more tium twelve times as many 
scholars at public charge in the free States as 
in the slave States. 

It paralyzes your industry and enterprise. — 
The census of 1840 also disclosed the fact that 
the free States, with two millions and a quarter 
inhabitants niorc,and ninety eight millions acres 
less than the slavo States, produce annmillv, in 
value, irom Mines thirty-three millions dollars 
more; from the Forests, eight millions dollars 
more; from Fisiieries, nine millions dollars 
more; from Agriculture, forty millions dollars 
more; from Manufa<'tures, one hundred and fifty 
one millions dollars more. At the same time, 
the cai>ital invested in commerce by the free 
States exceeds the capital similarly invisted in 
the slave States by more than one hundred mil- 
lions of dollars; and the tonnage of the former 
exceeds the tonnage of the latter by more than 
a thousand millions tons! This enormous dis- 
j)arity, which will strike attention the more for- 
cibly when it is considered that much of the 
cajjilal employed in tiie slave States is owned in 
the free, can be ascribed to no cause except sla- 
very. 

It degrades and dishonors labor. In what 
country did an Aristocracy ever care for the 
poor? When did slaveholders ever attempt to 
improve the condition of the free laborer. — 
"White negroes" is the contemptuous term by 
which Robert Wicklitlc, of Kentucky, designa- 
ted the free laborers of his State. He saw no 
distinction between them and slaves, except 
that tiie former may be converted into voters. — 
Chancellor Harper, of South Carolina, teaciies 
that, "so far as tiie mere laborer has the pride, 
the knowledge or the aspiration of a freeman, 
he is unfitted for his situation." And he likens 
the laborer "to the horse or tiie ox," to whom it 
would be ridiculous to attempt to impart "a 
cultivated understanding or fine feeling." Gov- 
ernor McDutlie, in a Message to tiie Legislature 
of Soutli Carolina, went so far as to say that, 
"the institution of domestic slavery supercedes 
tlie necessity of an order of nobility, and the 
other appendages of an hereditary system of 
government." Of course the slaveholders are 
the noble, and you, the non-slaveholders, are the 
ignoble, of this social system. 

Slavery corrupts tiie religion and destroys 
the morals of a couiinunity. We need not re- 
peat Jellerson'sstrong testimony. In a message 
to the Legislature of Kentucky, some years 
since, the Governor said, "VV^e long to see the 
day when the law will assert its majesty, and 
stop the wanton destruction of life which al- 



most daily occurs within the jurisdiction of tliis 
Commonwealth." And the Governor of Ala- 
bama, in a message to the Legislature of that 
State, said, "Why do we hear of stabbings and 
shootings, almost daily, in some part or other 
of <iur State." A Judge in New Orleans, in an 
address on the opening of his Court, observed, 
"Without some powerful and certain remedy 
our streets will become butcheries, overflowing 
with the blood of our citizens." 'I'hese terrible 
pictures are dra\yn by home pencils. Can com- 
munities prosper when religion and morality 
furnish no stronger restraints on violence and 
passion? 

Slavery is a source of most deplorable weak- 
ness. What a panic is spread by the bare sug- 
gestion of a servile insurrection? And how 
completely arc {he slaveholding States at tiie 
mercy of any invading foe who will raise the 
standard of emancipation? In the Revolution- 
ary War, according to the Secret Journals of 
Congress, South Carolina was "unable to make 
any etiectual etibrts with militia, by reason of 
the great ])roportion of citizens necessary to re- 
main at home to prevent insurrection among 
the negroes, and to jirevent the desertion of 
them to the enemy." We need not say that if 
the danger of insurrection was then great, it 
would be, circumstances being similar, tenfold 
greater now. 

Slavery seeks to deprive non-slaveholders oi 
political power. In Virginia and South Caro- 
lina especially, has this policy been most stead- 
ily and successfully pursued. In South Caro- 
lina tiie political |)ower of the State is lodged 
in the great slaveholding Districts by the Con- 
stitution, and to make assurance doubly sure, 
it is provided, in that instrument, that no per- 
son can be a member of the Legislature unless 
he owns five hundred acres of land and ten 
slaves, or an e([uivalent in additional land. The 
right of Voting for electors of President and 
Vice President is, in South Carolina, confined 
to Members of the Legislature; consequently, 
in that State no non-slaveholder can have a 
voice in the selection of the First and Second 
Ollicers of the Republic. Jn Virginia the slave 
population is considered the basis of political 
power, and the preponderance of representation 
is given to those districts in which there is the ' 
largest slave population. The House of Rep- 
resentatives consists of one hundred and thirty 
four members, of whom fifty-six are chosen by 
the counties west of tlie Blue Ridge, and seven- 
ty-eight by the counties east. The Senate 
consists of tliirty-two members, of whom thir- 
teen are assigned to the western, and nineteen 
to the eastern counties. Already the free 
white population west of the Blue Ridge ex- 
ceeds the same class east in number, but no 
change in the population can atiect this distri- 
bution of political power, designed to secure 
and preserve the ascendency of the slavehold- 
ers, who ciiiefly reside east of the Ridge, so long 
as the Constitution remains unchanged. 

These, non-slaveholders of the slave States, 
are the fruits of slavery. You surely can have 
no reason to love a system which entails such 
consequences. Yet it lives by your sutfer- 
ance. You have only to sjieaktlie word at the 
ballot-box, and the system falls. Will you be 
restrained from speaking tiiat word by the con- 
sideration that the enslaved will be benefited 
as well as yourselves; or by the selfish expect- 
ation that you may yourselves become slave- 



12 



holders hereafter, and so be admitted into the 
ranks of the Aristocracy? If such considera- 
tions withhold you, wc bid you beware lest you 
prepare a bitter retribution for yourselves, and 
find to your mortification and siiame, that a 
patent of nobility, written in the tears and 
blood of the oppressed, is a sorry passport to 
the approbation of mankind. 

We would appeal, also, to slaveholders them- 
selves. We would enter at once within the 
lines of selfish ideas and mercenary motives, and 
appeal to your consciences and your hearts. — 
You know that the system of slaveholding is 
wrong. Whatever theologians may teach and 
cite scripture for, you know — all of you who 
claim freedom for yourselves and your children 
as a birthright precious beyond all price, and 
inalienable as life — that no person can rightful- 
ly hold another as a slave. Your courts in their 
judicial decisions, and your books of common 
law in their elementary lessons, rise far above 
the precepts of most of your religious teach- 
ers, and declare all slaveholding to be againsl 
natural right. You feel it to be so. God has 
so made the human heart, that, in spite of all 
theological sophistry and pretended scripture 
proofs, you cannot help feeling it to be so. — 
There is a law of sublimer origin, and more 
awful sanction than any human code, written 
in ineffaceable characters, upon every heart of 
man, which binds all to do unto others as they 
would that otiiers should do unto them. And 
where is there one of all your number who 
would exchange conditions with the happiest 
of all your slaves? Produce the man! And 



its legislation and executive and judicial ad- 
ministration, by slaveholders, and for the pur- 
poses of slavery, is unjust to the non-slavehold- 
ers of the country? Can you blame us for say- 
ing that we will no longer sanction it? Are 
you not satisfied, to use the language of one 
of your own number, "tljat slavery is a cancer, 
a slow consuming cancer, a withering pesti- 
lence, an unmitigated curse." And can you 
wonder that we should be an.xious, by all just, 
and honorable and constitutional means, to ef- 
fect its extinction in our respective States and 
to confine it to its constitutional limits? Are 
you not fully aware that the gross inconsisten- 
cy of slaveholding witii our professed principles 
astonishes the world, and makes the Name of 
our Country a mock, and tiie Name of Liberty 
a byword? And can you regret that we should 
exert ourselves to the utmost to redeem our 
glorious land and her institutions from just 
reproach, and, by illustrious acts of mercy and 
justice, place ourselves, once more, in the van 
of f^Iuman Progress and Advancement? 

Finally, we ask all true friends of Libcrtj', of 
Impartial, Universal Liberty, to be firm and stead- 
fast. The little handful of voters, who, in 1840, 
wearied of compromising expediency, and des- 
pairing of anti-slavery action by pro-slave- 
ry parties, raised anew the standard of the 
Declaration, and manfully resolved to vote 
right then and vote for Freedom, has already 
swelled to a Great Paiitv, strong enough nu- 
merically to decide the issue of any national 
contest, and stronger far in the power of its 
pure and elevating principles. Atid if these 



until he is produced, let theological apologists j principles be sound, which we doubt not, and if 
for slaveholding keep silence. Most earnestly j the question of slavery be, as we verily believe 
would we entreat you to listen to the voice of ,it is, the great question of our day and nation. 



conscience and obey the promptings of human 
ity. We are not your enemies. We do not 
pretend to any superior virtue; or that we, be- 
ing in your circumstances, would be likely to 
act differently from you. But we are all fel 
low-citizens of the same great republic. We 
feel slaveholding to be a dreadful incubus up- 
on us, dishonoring us in the eyes of foreign na- 
tions; nullifying the force of our example of 
free institutions; holding us back from a glo 



it is a libel upon the intelligence, the patriot- 
ism, and the virtue of the American people to 
say that there is no hope that a majority will 
not array themselves under our banner. Let 
it not be said that we are factious or impracti- 
cable. We adhere to our views because we 
believe them to be sound, practicable and vi- 
tally important. We have already said that 
wc are ready to prove our devotion to our prin- 
ciples by co-operatini- with either of the other 



rious career of prosperity and renown; sowing I two great American Parties, which will openly 



broadcast the seeds of discord, division, disu- 
nion: and we are anxious for its extinction. — 
With Jefferson, we tremble for our country 
when we "remember that God is just, and that 
his justice cannot sleep forever." With Wash- 
ington we believe "that there is but one prop- 
er and eflPectual mode by which the extinction 
of slavery can be accomplished, and that is, by 
legislative authority; and this, so far as our 
suffrages will go, shall not be wanting." 

We would not invade the Constitution: but 
we would have the Constitution rightly con- 
strued and administered according to its true 
sense and spirit. We would not dictate the 
mode in which slavery shall be attacked in par- 
ticular States; but wc \^ould have it removed 
at once from all places under the exclusive ju- 
risdiction of the national government, and, 
also, have immediate measures taken, in accor- 
dance with constitutional rights and the prin- 
ciples of justice, for its removal from each State 
by State authority. In this work we ask your 



and honestly, in State and National Conven- 
tions, avow our doctrines and adopt our mea- 
sures, until slavery shall be overthrown. We 
do not indeed expect any such adoption and 
avowal by either of those parties, because we 
are well aware that they fear more, at present, 
from the loss of slavehok.ing support than from 
f he loss of anti-slavery co-operation. But wo 
can be satisfied with nothing less, for we will 
compromise no longer; and, therefore, must of 
necessity, maintain our separate organization 
as the True Democratic Party of the country, 
and trust our cause to the patron<ige of the 
People and the blessing of God! 

Carry then, Friends of Freedom and Free 
Labor, your principles to the ballot box. Let 
no difficulties discourage, no dangers daunt, 
no delays dishearten you. Your solemn vow 
that Slavery must perish is registered in Heav- 
en. Renew that vow! Think of the martyrs 
of Truth and Freedom; think of the millions 
of the Enslaved; think of the other millions of 



co-operation. Shall we ask in vain? Are you j the oppressed and degraded Free: And renew 
not convinced that the almost absolute monopo- that vow! Be not tempted from the path of 



ly of the offices and the patronage of the gov- 
■ernraent, and the almost exclusive control of 



political duty. Vote for no man, act with no 
party politically connected with the supporters 



l; 

of Slavery. V'oto for no man, act with no jiar- 
ty unwillinfj to adopt and carr}- out tlic ])rinci- 
plcs which we liave set forth in this address. 
To conii)roniisc for any partial or temporary 
advantag'e is ruin to our cause. To act with 
any party or to vote for tiie candidates of any 
party which recognizes the friends and suppor- 
ters of slavery as members in lull standinjr, he- 
cause in particular places or under particular 
circumstances, it may make lari^c ])rofes.sion9 
of anti-slavery zeal, is to commit political sui- 
cide. Unssverving fidelity to our princiiilcs; 
unalterable determination to carry those j)rin- 
ciples to the ballot box at every election; in- 
flexible and unanimous support of those and 
only those who are true to those principles are 
the conditions of our ultimate triumph. Let 
these conditions be fulfilled: and our trium[>li 
is certain. The indications of its coming mul- 
tiply on every hand. Thq clarion trump of 



Freedom breaks already the gloomy silence of 
Slavery in Kentucky, and its echoes are heard 
tliroughout the land. A spirit of enquiry and 
of action is awakened every where. The assem- 
blage of the Convention, whose voice we utter, 
is itself an auspicious omen, (iathered Jrom 
the North and the South, and the East and 
West, we here unite our counsels, and consoli- 
date our action. Wc are resolved to go for- 
ward knowing that our cause is just trusting 
in God. We ask you to g<» forward with us: 
invoking His blessing who sent his Son to re- 
deem mankind. With Him are the issues of 
all events. He can and He will disappoint 
all the devices of oppression. He can, and 
we trust He will, make our instrumentality 
eHicient for the redemption of our land from 
Slavery, and lor the fulfilment of our Fathers' 
Pledge in behalf of Freedom, before Him and 
before the World. 



Proccediiigs of llic Soiitlicni and Wcstorii Liberty Couveiili<)ii. 

Hdd at the Tahrrnnclc in Cincinnati, June Jl, 1845. 



The Southern and Western Liberty Conven- 
tion met at the Tabernacle, in Cincinnati, on 
Wednesday, the 11th of June, 1815, at 9 A. M, 
More than two thousand delegates were pres- 
ent from Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, 
Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Virginia and Michi- 
gan, and distinguished strangers were present 
from Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New 
York: Rev. John Pierpont and Wm. Jackson 
of .Massachusetts, Mr. Jamison of Rhode Island, 
and Geo. W. Clark of New York. 

S. P. Chase, from Committee of Arrange- 
ments, called the Convention to order at 
1(J A. M., and moved that a tem|)orary or- 
ganization be formed by calling Samuel Lewis, 
of Ohio, to the Chair, and Thomas Heaton, of 
Ohio, as Secretary, which was adopted. 

A few minutes were then spent in silent de-| 
votion, after which Rev. James H. Dickey led; 
the public devotion by a fervent appeal to thci 
Throne of Grace. 

On motion of Dr. Brisbane, tliefollowinggen-l 
tlcmen w-ere appointed a committee to norai-' 
nate officers for the permanent organization of 
the Convention, and re))ort rules for its govern- 
ment, viz: — Dr. W. H. Brisbane of Ohio, Wm. 
F. Clark of Pennsylvania, John G. Fee of Ken- 
tucky, Mr. Browulee of Indiana, Rev. J. 
H. Dickey of lllinoia, and Charles H. Stewart 
of Michigan. 

The Chair then read letters from Wm. II. 
Seward of New York, Cassius iM. Clay of Ken- 
tucky, Horace Grecly of New York, Elihu Bur- 
ritt of Massachusetts, and Judge Wm. Jay o( 
New York. 

Dr. Brisbane, from Ihc Committee to report 
oflicers for the permanent organization of the 
Convention, made report as follows: — 
President — James G. Birney, of Michigan. 



Vice Presidents — S. C. Stevens. Indirna; Ste- 
phen E. GifTcn, Ohio ; Hirim Men- 
dcnhall, Indiana; John G. Ice, Ken- 
tucky; Edgar Needham, Keitucky; J. 
Codding, Illinois; A. L. Baber, AVis- 
consin; Owen Lovejoy, Illirois; James 
II. Dickey, Illinois; Robert Ilanna, 
Pennsylvania; Stephen K Harding, 
Indiana; John Keep, Oho; Thomas 
Miller, Pennsylvania; Divid Craig, 
Virginia; Samuel Lew is, Jhio. 
Secretaries — Thomas Heaton, Oluj; M. R. Hull, 
Indiana; Russell Errctt, Pennsylvania. 
The Chairman, Mr. Lewis, tl en introduced 
Mr. Birney to the Convention, wlio returned 
thanks for the honor done him and addressed 
the Convention for a few minutes on the pre- 
sent aspects of the Anti-Slavcrj cause. 

After the officers had taken their seats, Mr. 
Geo. W. Clark of New York »ang, in his best 
style, a Liberty song. 

On motion, all strangers from States not em- 
braced in the Call, and in attendance on the 
Convention, were requested to lake seats as de- 
legates, and participate witii us in our delibe- 
rations. 

On motion of S. P. Chase, the following 
gentlemen were appointed a committee to re- 
port resolutions and an Address: — S. P. Cha^ie, 
Ohio ; Edward Smith, Pennsylvania ; M. 
Cabell, Indiana ; J. H. Dickey, Illinois ; J. G, 
Fee, Kentucky. 

On motion, Thomas K. Smith, and Henr/ 
Lewis of Ohio; Walter Edgington and Dr. 
Bingham of Indiana; and Robert Hanna of 
Pennsylvania, were appointed a Committee of 
Ways and Means. 

1 he Committee to report rules for the gov- 
ernment of the Convention, submitted a se'ics 



14 



of rules. Tlie fifth rule was, on motion, l;iicl on 
the table, and the other rules adopted 

After a sontj by Mr. Clark, tiie Convention 
adjourned till 2 V. M. 

Afternoon Session. 

The Convention was called to order by Mr 
Lewis, one of the Vice Presidents, who, by re 
quest, read letters from Wm. (loodell, of x^. Y., 
and Phineas Crandall, a Presiding Elder of the 
M. E. Church, in Massuchusetts. 

Mr. Chase from the Committee, submitted a 
series of resolutions, which were read, and laid 
over for consideration to-morrow. The same 
gentleman, from the same Committee, rejjorted 
an address to the people of the United States, 
wiiich was read and unanimously adopted. 

Mr. Clark then sang a Liberty song. 

On motion, John A. Wills, of Pa., E. Need- 
ham, of Ky., J. Codding, of 111., S. S. Hardinge, 
of la., and T. B. Hudson, of Ohio, were appoint- 
ed a committee to draft a Constitution for a 
Mississippi Valley Anti->Slavery Society. 

Mr. Clarke then sang the "Liberty Ball," 
with the help of the Convention to "roll it 
along," when an adjournment to 8 P. M. took 
place. 

Evening Session. 

The President called the Convention to order. 
The ev;ning was spent in hearing addresses 
and sorgs. Mr. Wills, of Pa., Edgar Need- 
ham, of Ky., Judge Stevens, of la., and Samuel 
Lewia, of Ohio, addressed the Convention in a 
\ery hap^y manner, the intervals between the 
speeches being enlivened by songs from Mr. 
Clarke. ;^t half past ten o'clock the Conven- 
tion adjourned till 8 A. M. to-morrow. 

Thursday, June 12, 9 A. M. 

The Pres'dent called the Convention to order. 
When the p-oceedings were opened by prayer 
by Rev. Mr.J'ee, of Kentucky. 

Wm. Jaclson, of Massachusetts, then ad- 
dressed the Convention, and was followed in a 
few words by the President. 

Mr. Chase tien called up the resolutions sub- 
mitted ycstercay, which after being read, dis- 
cussed and amended were adopted as follows: 

L Resolved, That no party can justly claim 
to be a truly Democratic party, which does not 
propose to itself tlic abrogation, by every honora. 
ble, j ust, and cor*<titulional means, of all legali- 
zed despotism and oppression, wiihin the reach of 
its political influence;and, therefore, that party 
which, at prescni, claims the honorable title 
of the Democratic party of the United States, 
but refuses to act nt all against the worst form 
and most malignant kind of despotism and op- 
pression, and perseveres in a monstrous alliance 
with slaveholders, and in sustaining slavery 
with the whole energy of national authority, 
in disregard of the Constitution and of Right, 
has forfeited all claim to be so designated or 
regarded. 

2. Resolved, That that party only, which 
i-dopts in good faith, the principles of the Dec- 
kration of Independence, and proposes, when- 
efer and wherever it may obtain the necessary 
political power, to administer the National and 
State Governments in conformity to those prin- 
ciples, without regard to persons, and, there 



ger of our day and nation, and then, to oppose 
all measures which endanger, and to support all 
just measures which favor human liberty, is the 
true Democratic party of the United States. 

3. Resolved, That we love the Union and de- 
sire its perpetuity, and revere the Constitution, 
and are determined to maintain it; but the 
Union which we love must be an Union to es- 
tablish justice, and secure the blessings of Lib- 
erty: and the Constitution which we support, 
must be that which our Fathers bequeathed to 
us, and not that which the constructions of 
Slavery and Servilism have substituted for it. 

4. Resolved, That it is vain for any party to 
look for our co-oper^ition, which refuses or 
omits in its State and National Conventions to 
avow our principles and adopt our measures. — 
And it is because the Liberty party is the only 
party which does avow our principles and adopt 
our measures, that we propose to give to it our 
cordial and united support. 

5. Resolved, I'hat as a National Party, our 
purpose and determinution is to divorce the 
National Government from Slavery; to prohibit 
slaveholding in all places of exclusive nation- 
al jurisdiction; to abolish the domestic slave 
trade; to harmonize the administration of the 
Government in all its departments with the 
principles of the Declaration; and, in all prop- 
er and constitutional modes to discourage and 
discontinue the system of work without wa- 
ges; but not to interfere, unconstitutionally, 
with the local legislation of particular States. 

6. Resolved, That in the late struggle for 
the Presidency, we cannot perceive that the 
Liberty party evinced any preference for the 
candidates of either of the other parties, both 
being slaveholders and partizana of slavery: 
but are satisfied that they voted for their own 
candidates simply because they represented 
their own views and measures, which neither 
of the candidates of the other parties did or 
could, and because they reposed in them a 
trust and confidence which the efforts and arts 
of their opponents failed to destroyer diminish. 

7. Resolved, That we earnestly desire an 
union of all sincere friends of Liberty and 
Eree Labor upon the grounds set forth by this 
Convention; and would respectfully recommend 
that, wherever those who concur in the princi- 
ples and doctrines of this Convention are found 
together in suflicient numbers, they nominate 
candidates for all elective offices, and support 
them with unanimity and vigor, and that they 

hould, in all eases, abstain from the support of 
candidates nominated by and representing any 
pro-slavery party. 

8. Resolved, That in the judgment of this 
Convention, no nomination should be made for 
the Presidency and Vice Presidency of the 
United States before the fall of 1847, or the 
spring of 1848; and that, in the mean time, all 
questions in relation to these nominations 
should be kept entirely open; and that, when 
the proper time shall arrive, that such candi- 
dates should be selected as will unite the lar- 
gest and most cordial support, with undoubted 
capacity and unequivocal devotion to our prin- 
ciples and measures. 

9. Resolved, That we deeply sympatjiize with 
all those who, for no other offence than that of 



foie, to direct, openly and honestly, its most! peacefully aiding the enslaved in attempting to 
flensive and energetic action against slavery, I regain that freed-'in which our nation has de- 
ano the oppression which originates in slavery, elared to be inalienable, are unjustly imprison- 
as tae greatest evil and most threatening dan-]ed: and we especially denounce the imprison- 



15 

rncnt of Jonathan WalkcJr, for that alleged of- explained, Mr. Nccdham withdrew his inoJion. 
fence by national antiiority in Florida, as a fla- iMr. Codding, of 111., then addressed tlie Con- 
grant violation of the Constitution and a gross} vention in a very eloquent njanncr, after which 
indignity, not only to the State of ]\Iassachu-| the colored children of the Cincinnati High 



Bctts, but to the people of all the States. 

10. Resolved, That in the judgment of this 



:chool, under the direction of Mr, Colburn, 
sang several songs from Clarke's Liberty Min- 



Convention.thc proper course for a Free State strel, much to the gratification of the audience, 
to adopt, when her citizens are ignominiously Mr. Wills from the committee to report a 
and unconstitutionally iin|)risoned in or c.\pcll-l Constitution for tht Mississippi Valley Anti- 
ed from the territory of another State in the | Slavery Society, reported against the propriety 
Union, is, to demand of the National Govern- 1 of forming sueii a Society at this time, but re- 
ment the en-ictmcnt and enforcement of prop- [commended instead the appointment by the 



er laws to secure her citizens in the enjoyment 
of their violated rights, and, failing compliance 
with such demand, to protect her citizens her- 
self. 



President of a Committee of Correspondence, 
to consist of five members, whose dutj' it shall 
be to conduct a correspondence witli anti-sla- 
very men abroad, as to the best means of pro- 
moting our enterprise, and especially to con- 



11. Resolved, That we arc not indifferent to 
questions of trade or currency, or extension of -""'^ '^'^ ^^ ^'"-' propriety of calling a Convention 
territory, or to any other questions relatino- to "' ^''^ 'nt-nds of emancipation ui the South and 
the prosperity and advancement of the country; ^^ ^^-^^^ ^^ I'e held at some proper place on the 
but we have no doubt that tlio.sc who are wiUimr''^" °'' •'""'''• l^*''' ^''«-' anniversary of lh» 



to subordinate these riuestions to the jrreuP ''''^^''^ "'^ ^""'^'^''' ^''"• 

question of Personal Rights, will be ablc.l i '»« chair appointed the following gentler 

wherever they become responsible by the po.,.' t'''' committee— S. P. Cliase, Samuel Lewis, 



py become res|>onsible by me p 
session of power, to adjust ti^ese matters upon 
a satisfactory basis: in tiie meantime, if we 



men 
W. 



II. Brisbane, Wm. Birney, G. Bailey Jr. 

Tlie following resolutions were reported from 



differ somewhat among ourselves as to these the Committch on Resolutions, and unanimous- 
questions, wc have tlie consolation of knowing iy adopted. 



that the members of no other party arc entirely 
agreed upon them. 

12. Resolved, That we revere the memory 
of Tmo.mas Morris, who preferred his country 
to his party, and was willing to sacrifice his 
political i)osition rather tiian renounce his po 



1. Rpsolped, That the thanks of this Con- 
vention be presented to the Trustees and con- 
gregation of this church, for the nseof its large 
and commoiiious house for its sessions. 

2. Ri solved. That the thanks of this Conven- 
tion be presented to the people of Cincinnati, 



litical principles: his manly and noble protestlfor t|,o kind and liberal bospiUlity extended to 



against the doctrines of slavery, when strongly 
urged by tlie great Whig Leader, remains an 
illustrious mdiiiiment of his devotion to Truth 
and Duty and Freedom. 

(The Convention adopted this resolution by 
a rising vote, as a reverential tribute to the 
memory of the honored dead.) 

13. Resolved, That wo do not understand the 
Liberty Party to be a sectional but a National 
Part}'; the presence and co-operation of free 



its members, 

3. Resolved, That this Convention will hail 
with satisfaction the establishment of a Month- 
ly Free Review, which shall be devoted so far 
as its political department is concerned to the 
advancement of the cause of I'recdomand Free 
La bor. 

Rev. Mr. Gilmer presented to the Convention 
some statements, resjiecting the sufTcring con- 
dition of the wife and family of the Rev. J. B. 



men of the slave States assures us that thej Mahan, deceased. The Rev. Mr. Chase also 
Irinciples of Liberty are traveling south of| made a warm apn 



Mason tt Dixon's lino, and give us good hope 
that they will be, ere long, established in puri- 
ty and vigor on the Gulf of IVlexico. 

After a song from Mr. Clarke the Convention 
adjourned. 

Afternoon Sessioii. 

Mr. Ncedham, of Kentucky, moved a recon- 
sideration of the ninth resolution and express- 
ed his conviction that its language would be 
misapprehended and niisre|)resented by the peo- 
ple of his State and of the South generally, and 
thus result in injury to emanci])ation. He said 
one of the greatest causes of irritation to the 
slaveholders of Kentucky was, the escape of 
their slaves, which was constantly taking place. 



ppeal in their behalf, when con- 
tributions were freely made on the spot for their 
benefit. 

On motion of Dr. Bailey, the proceedings, 
addresses and resolutions were ordered to be 
published in all the city papers, who will ad- 
mit thehi in their columns, and in pamphlet 
form to the extent of the means collected. The 
letter of Eliliu Burritt, with such other letters 
and extracts of letters as the Committee on 
publication might select, were also ordered to 
be published in the jiamphlet edition. 

Dr. Bailey and Mr. Sperry were appointed a 
committee of publication. ' 

Mr. Clark of Pennsylvania, offered a resolu- 
tion recommendinnr the holding of an Anti-Sla- 



aided as they supposed, by the abolitionists of ^''''"y ^^""vention in Washington City on the 



the free States; and if he and his colleagues 
were to be corisidered as approving of the prac- 
tice of enticing slaves away from their masters, 
a great obstacle would be thrown in the way of 
their further progress. 

Mr. Fee of the same State, followed and ex- 
pressed similar sentiments. 

After a friendly interchange of views on the 
part of several members of the Convention, in 



first Monday in May, 184G, which resolution 
was referred to the Committee on Correspon- 
dence, with directions to ascertain by corres- 
ponding, what arc the views of anti-slavery 
men in the West and South-West as to the ex- 
pediency and most suitable time for holding 
such convention. 

Mr. Clark then sang the Yankee Girl, which 
w'as received with great applause, after which 



which the true import of the resolution was] the Convention adjourned to 8 o'clock P. M 



16 



Evening Session. 

Mr. Chase introduced the following resolu- 
tion, which after a fervent address from Rev. 
Owen Lovcjoy, the brother of the martyr, was 
unanimously adopted. 

Resolved, That we cherish with reverential 
affection the memory of Elijah P. Lovejoy, a 
Martyr of Liberty; but, while we mourn his 
loss, we rejoice in the proofs spread out over 
the land, that though dead, he yet speaks by 
his words and his example, to the hearts of the 
American People. 

Edward Smith of Pennsylvania, and John 
Pierpont of Massachusetts, then addressed the 
Convention, and were followed with songs by 
Dr. Ackley of Indiana, and George W. Clarke. 
After which the benediction was pronounced 



by Rev. Owen Lovejoy, and the Convention ad- 
journed finally. 

JAMES G. BIKNEY, President. 
S. 0. Stevens, 

S. E. GiFFEN, 

' H. Mendenhall, 
J. G. Fee, 

J. ("ODDINO, 

A. L. Harbeu, 
O. Lovejoy, 
J. H. Dickey. 
R. Hanna, 
E. Needham, 
S. S. Hardingk, 
J. Keep, 

T. MiLI.ER, 

D. Craio. 

S. Lewis, VicePresidents\, 
T. Heaton, 
M K. Hull, 
K. Errett, Secretaries. 



Letters to the Convention. 



Eliliu Biirritt's LiCttcr. , 

Worcester, May 23d, 1845. 

My Dear Sir: — I am almost at a loss 
for language "to e.vpress my sense of obligation 
to you, and the Committee in whose behalf 
you speak, for those terms of kindness and 
confidence with which you invite me to be 
present at your great Convention in Cincinnati, 
on the 11th of June. And it is with a profound 
sentiment of regret that I am compelled, by 
circumstances which 1 cannot bend to my wisli, 
to forego a pleasure which I sliould have cher- 
ished during the remainder of my life, as one 
of the choicest souvenirs in the jewelry of my 
remembrance. It is with great dift^jculty that 
I can so arrange my labors as to permit me to 
be absent from Worcester a fortniglit at a time. 
Still I have longed to see your great and pros- 
perous State; and when, a few weeks before I 
received your communication, a letter came 
from certain literary societies connected with 
the Oberlin Institute, inviting me to deliver 
their next annual address, in August, I accept- 
ed the invitation, that I might associate with 
my visit some other object than that of mere 
curiosity. To fulfil this engagement will ex- 
haust all the time that I can force out of the 
discharge of my labors at home, which would 
preclude the possibility of making two journies 
to Ohio in one season. Although I cannot be 
with you in person — or rather in body — I shall 
be present with every earnest sympathy of my 
soul, with every attribute of my humanity that 
can pray and hope for man, and labor to lift up 
my down-trodden brother the Slave — God's 
child, to a new life and the light of a new 
heaven for his downcast alienated heart, a 
heaven spanned with God's own handwriting 
in the fixed stars and every rainbow of hope, 
that his Ethiopian Jiue shall no longer impair 
the dignity of his humanity or his title or ac- 
cess to allthe privileges, progress and prospects 
of the children of a common Father, either on 
earth or in heaven. The place, the motives 
and the members of your Convention, will all 
■conspire to give it a moral might and majesty, 
which will be felt over the Union, and carry a 
premonition of death to an institution which, 
like a huge deep-rooted upas, has diffused its 



subtle poison ov^r the once greenest portion of 
this continent, until every thing that lives or 
lies beneatii its shade bears the hectic of the 
searing curse. 

No place in the Union could have been more 
appropriately selected than Cincinnati. Situa- 
ted on the heaven side of freedom, a magnifi- 
cent illustration of what it can do for human 
nature and human society, well might it say to 
those who live in the pale and sickly wilderness 
of slavery, " Come, and let us reason together.''^ 
And it should quicken the pulse of great-heart- 
ed patriotism, that, this friendly call has been 
greeted by a cordial response from the first 
liome of the Anglo-Saxon race on this conti- 
nent — from unfortunate Virginia, the primeval 
Eden of Nature in America, now pining be- 
neath the breath of an institution which has 
blasted the foliage and the fruit of her tree of 
knowledge, and her tree of life; and which, if 
it has not banished her into the wilderness with- 
out, has brought the wilderness into her para- 
dise. Virginial oldest patriarch in the ark of 
Freedom which outrode the universal deluge of 
despotism — among the first altars it erected in 
its heritage, was one for the sacrifice of hu- 
manity and the immolation of human liberty. 
First to declare the inalienable rights of man, 
and, like the. antediluvian patriarch, to preach 
the righteousness of freedom to the world, it 
was the first to become intoxicated with the 
spirit of its domestic slavery, and, under its 
influence, to curse its posterity with an evil 
which has operated with unspent and unsparing 
malignity upon young and old, rich and poor, 
bond and free, through their successive genera- 
tions. Virginia! still venerable in her misfor- 
tunes and grand in her decadence, the devout 
and filial memories which cluster about her an- 
cient virtues, like the pious sons of Noah, 
would approach her behind a mantle of charity 
which should hide from the subject and object 
of the sorrowful vision, the sight of her uncon- 
scious weakness and insensible prostration. 

And old Virginia, the Virginia of the best 
days of our history, will be with you, repre- 
sented by a few choice spirits, who, with the 
sublime chivalry of moral heroism, the offspring 
and origin of better things in her condition, 
will go up to your communion, as the estranged 



17 

and scattered children of Israel went upfromltions and efforts, not only to promote the 



their coasta to worship witli their Jewish breth- 
ren in tiie temple at Jerusalem in the days of 
Hczekiah. And between that ancient jubilee 
and your Convention, I pray that there may be 
features of resemblance to which future gen- 
erations shall revert in grateful memory. If 
there is one thing more than another, which 
would enhance my pleasure in being present 
on the occasion, it would be the privilege of 
meeting there those heroic spirits from Virginia, 
Above all the places on earth, I sliould prefer 
to give them the warm hand of fraternal fel- 
lowship on the green banks of the Oiiio. There, 
in view of the luxuriant fields and all the ver- 
dant life of your illimited Eden, I would hold 
■with them a brotherly communion on the gos- 
pel of nature and the great principles of hu- 
manity. While a beautiful world of exuberant 
fertility expanded to their view beneath the 
heaven-blessed labor of free hands, and cities 
and villages, buoyant wilh the vigor of youth- 
ful activity, vied witli vegetation in rapidity of 
growth — 1 would remind tlicm, with earnest 
lenderneps, that the rain, the dew and tiie sun- 
light fell upon the fields of Virginia with the 
same richness of beneficence as upon thofc of 
Ohio: tliat nature had lavished upon the "Old 
Dominion" all tliat she could do for her choicest 
vineyiird, and never witlihcid a gift that could 
make it the garden and glory of America. I 
would say to tliem, that if the recent wilder 
ness of your slate has been made to blossom as 
the rose, it is an evidence, bearing the signature 
of the Almighty, that no slave breathes its pure 
air or treads its free soil; tiiat in it and on it all 
men are born krkk and i:cii,'.\r., inheriting and 
enriching all those "inalienable rights" laid 
down in that Magna Charta of democracy which 
bears the broad seal of Virginia in the blood of 
her patriots. I would say to them, that all the 
difTerencis in condition and prospects, between 
(jliio and Virginia exists in the difTerencc o) 
their devotion to that sublime dogma of demo- 
trac}' which stands at the head of the Declara- 
tion of our Independence: and tint if the moth- 
er of the Union, among all tiie children she has 
brought up, has nohe left to guide her; if her 
walls are broken down and her fields laid waste; 
if tiie music of inacliinery never breaks the 
silence of her streams, and degraded labor has 
no songs in the night or the day; if her children 
fly from her bosom to regions where honest toil 
is not the CMiniilinn of the slave, it is because 
!-he has not bc-n true to that great doctrine of 
human rights which ehc was the first to pro- 
claim to mankind. I would give them the 
brotherly hand of every liberty-loving gon of 
toil in New England in pledge, that their ha- 
tred of slavery is the strongest expression of 
their love for Virginia; tiiat no malevolence 
lurks at the bottom of this great enterprise of 
freedom, in which the moral sentiment of the 
world is fast concentrating with an energy 
which must soon carry it to that issue which 
.'ihall be. greeted with acclamations of grace! 
grace untu it! from every corner of the world. 
Brethren, I would say, not an eflfort in this 
cause is inspired by aught else than the very 
soul of love to you and your children, 'i'he 
malevolence of which we have been suspected, 
has this extent, no more: that Emancipation 
shall be Paradise Regained to Virginia, in all 
the compass of that condition. 

It is one of the chiefest aims of our aspira- 



emancipation of the slave, but to emancipate 
the "Old Dominion" from the old dominion of 
slavery ; to emancipate her institutions of 
learning and religion from an influence that 
has poisoned their vitality; to emancipate the 
energies of her people from that crippling com- 
pression which has bent them to the ground; to 
emancipate her rivers and streams,- whose cur- 
rents have been ice-bound in time of summer, 
because the mark of the beast was burnt and 
burning _in the brow of labor pining on their 
banks; to emancipate her soil from that sallow 
disease with which the sweat of the slave- 
falling on its face like aqua /orii's-— has devour- 
ed its capacity of production; to emancipate 
the treasures that lie locked and guarded by a 
huge Cerberus, in her mountains, valleys, and 
hill-sides; to emancipate nature itself from that 
iron prevention which has withheld her hand 
from dropping fatness upon every square acre 
of her territory. If this is malevolence, it is 
not the head, nor front, nor end of our ofTend- 
ing. To say, that, in rescuing Virginia from 
slavery, we would be content with making her 
what New England is, comes far short of our 
object and desire. "We would ntakc her 
what New England would be, with the soil, 
rivers, and streams, and natural resources 
of Virginia; which, with the indomitable ge- 
nius and energy of free labor, would enable 
her to manufacture for a continent and feed 
half of its populatiim with the productions of 
her soil. Has she annually expatriated thou- 
sands of her most vigorous sons, who could not 
toil where labor is degraded; we would re-pco- 
plc her borders with In-r exiles, who should re- 
turn with songs of joy on their heads, as the 
ancient Jews to their beloved Canaan. Are 
her lands lying waste in artificial sterility, wc 
would resuscitate th.cm to all their original 
fertility, and cut them up into farms clothed 
with exuberant verdure, and tilled by intelli- 
gent and virtuous freemen. "/s one in twilve. 
of her grown up and governing pnpuhilion iina- 
lile to read or xcrile,'''' we would dil the whole 
extent of her domain with school-houses, and 
supply every hamlet with a library and the 
means of gratuitous instruction. Is Virginia 
declining in political power, and fast losing 
her share of influence in the councils of the 
nation, we would give her far more than she 
ever possessed. We would double her repre- 
sentation in the representatives of freemen in 
our national Congress, who should be an honor 
to the country. With such an aim and end as 
this, in the inception, prosecution, and issue of 
this great work of philanthropy, shall we talk 
of dissolving the Union? — that t^nion to which 
the success of our ell'orts must give elements 
of cohesion stronger than ten thousand chains 
of adamant? — that Union, the concentrating 
nucleus of the hopes and interests of the future 
ages of humanity? — that Union to which tho 
abolition of slavery weu*d give a moral power 
that should lift up the race from its darkness 
and depression ? Dissolution of tho Union? — 
What! cut in two the Mississippi, that jugular 
vein of the New V/orki, and sever all the 
mighty arteries of the Union, and leave it to 
bleed to death in hostile segments, both writh- 
ing in the cauteries of mutual hatred! Nature 
itself would repel this profane disriiption of a 
system to whose integrity everj' stream from 
the Pdbine to the Ft. Johns, is as necessary as 



18 



any vein in the human body. Dissolve the 
Union! run the amputating knife through the 
child of all that the progressive ages of human- 
ity have produced of freedom and virtue! and 
that because one of its members is infected 
with a cutaneous disease, which not a drop of 
blood less than that which now circulates in 
its whole system will remove ! Does God or 
mankind require the sacrifice of this Union, 
this Isaac of the race, in which all nations 
should be blessed? And shall Americans lift 
the knife against it, not as an act of faith, but 
of pusillanimous distrust in God? If nothing 
in the natural religion of patriotism could 
stay their suicidal arm; let every lover of his 
kind pray that the Almighty who arrested the 
patriarch's descending blow which was to sever 
his son, may open the cloudy curtain of his 
pavilion, and interpose a cheaper victim of im- 
molation; or that miglit 

"Come thick night, 
And pall it in the dunnesl snioUe of hell, 
That its keen knife see not the wound it makes, 
Or heaven peep through the blanket of the dark. 
To cry Hold! HoUlP''" 

Dissolve the Union! dissolve the whole mo- 
ral power we have and need to abolish slavery! 
May God grant that your Convention may ban- 
ish that treacherous idea from every American 
heart. I trust that its Satanic lineaments will 
be detected and detested, should it surrepti- 
tiously enter your councils in the guise of an 
angel of light. No! you wiil not meet to dis- 
solve, hut to e«o/iie the 'Union; to renovate it 
on the basis of the fathers of the Republic. — 
. That basis is broad and deep enougii to unite 
the world. A better foundation cannot be laid 
by fallen men. You will meet as our fathers 
met, you will begin where they begun, and 
where their degenerate children left off to 
build. You will meet. To form a more perfect 
Union, establish justice, ensure domestic tran- 
quility, provide for the common defence, promote 
the general welfare, and secure the blessiiigs of 
liberty to ourselves and our posterity. This is 
the work you will unite to resume. This is 
the foundation to whicli you will descend to 
lay the first stone that has been laid therein 
since our "fatiiers fell asleep." As the nations 
round about Judca contributed materials to 
the erection of Solomon's Temple, so the 
world, with all its moral wealth, will be- 
come tributary to the structure of the Great 
American Temple of Liberty, founded on such 
a rock, and hail its completion as the asy- 
lum and aduiiration of the race. The Union! 
it is worth the world to the destiny of hu- 
man nature for the abolition of slavery; and 
the abolition of slavery will add the wealth 
and moral power of the world to the Union. — 
May we speak of the value oi salvation, and 
the extent of infinity, then, for lack of a more 
religious term, let me express the liope and be- 
lief that your Convention wiil enhance the 
value, because it shall increase the strength and 
vitality of the Union. lu tliat hope-inspired 
imagination with which I am wont to contem- 
plate tiie destiny of the American Republic,-! 
have fancied tliat, in the life-time Of the pres- 
ent age, some heaven-kissing monument, the 
ofTspring of the 11th of June, might be erected 
from the bed of tiie Ohio, opposite your city, as 
a kind of centri-mundane column, saying to 
all things that shine and sing in heaven, and all 
that can carry the news on the wings of the 



wind; saying to all ages, to all men, to all bond- 
men groaning in the undiscovered habitations 
of cruelty: 

"I stand the plan's proud period; 
I pronounce tlie work accomplished," the 
warfare closed, the victory won, the triumph 
OF THE American Union. 

Please, Sir, to accept for yourself, and ten- 
der to the other members of your com- 
mittee the profound sentiments of re- 
spect and sympathy with which I am 
theirs and yours for humanity, 

Elihu Burritt. 
Samuel Lewis Esa. of Com., Sfc. 



Wni. H. Seward''s Letter. 

Auburn, May 26th, 1845. 

Gentlemen, — Your letter of the 19th of April, 
inviting me to a "Southern and Western Con- 
vention of the Friends of Constitutional Lib- 
erty, at Cincinnati," has been received. You 
inform me that the Convention will not be 
composed exclusively of members of the Lib- 
erty Party, but will be open "to all who are re- 
solved to use every constitutional and honora- 
ble means to effect the extinction of Slavery in 
their respective States and its reduction to its 
constitutional limits in the United States." 

I am profoundly sensible of the honor thus 
conferred upon me. But uncontrolabic circum- 
stances concurring with my own disposition, 
oblige me to avoid the political arena and de- 
vote myself assiduously to prolcssional pur- 
suits. If I could at all attend a Convention so 
distant, I should not stop to inquire of whom 
it was composed. It would be enough that its 
design was to promote Ihe abolition of Slavery, 
an object whose importance is paramount to 
that of every other which engages or can en- 
gage the consideration of the American peo[)le. 

Permit mc, with the utmost deference, to 
express a hope that the deliberations of the 
Convention may be conducted in a spirit of wise 
and enlightened moderation. I have alway.s 
sympathised with Abolitionists too deeply to be 
one of those who hindered oV embarrass them, 
by complaining of their intemperate zeal and 
exposing the injudiciousness of their measures. 
But the cause of Emancipation has now reached 
an interesting crisis. Thesentimcnt of justice 
to the African race has at length become a po- 
litical element too important to be overlooked 
or disregarded by either of the great political 
parties. The expediency of practical Emanci- 
pation is directly discussed in one slave State, 
and thousands are prepared for it in other 
States where the institution has seemed impreg- 
nable. Its advocates fail to convince the peo- 
ple that it is a humane, or a necessary, or even 
a harmless anomaly in our constitution. Never- 
theless popular action is cheeked by alarms 
concerning the threatened dangers of Emanci- 
pation, Civil Wars, and Dissolution of the 
Union. We live in an age when the pacific in- 
fluences of Christianity are widely diffused, 
and we shrink from prosecuting even the most 
benevolent designs if they seem to involve the 
calamities of war. If we analyse the national 
passion of patriotism, we shall find it to con- 
sist chiefly in veneration for the Constitution, 
and devotion to the Unioa of the States. At 
the same time the seeming indifference of the 



19 

people concerning the guilt and danger ofl mass of citizens disfranchised on the ground of 
Slavery has been so irksome to the impetuous, color. They must be invested with the right 
that many who have been esteemed wise and j of suffrage. Give them this right, and their 
patriotic citizens.have come to treat of disunion, influence will be immediatelv felt in the Na- 



as if it were preferable to further forbearance, 
or were in .some way involved in the success of 
abolitinn. I trust that such sentiments will be 
discarded. Whatever hopes may be indulged by 



tional Councils, and it is needless to say will 
be cast in favor of those who uphold the cause 
of Human Liberty. We must resist unceas- 
ingly the admission of slave States, and urge 



those who permit themselves to speculate con-iund demand the abolition of slavery in the 
cerning secession or nullification, wc have en- District o( Columbia. We have secured the 
joyed more abounding national prosperity, right of Petition, but tiie federal Government 
more perfect political and social equality, and | continues to be swerved by the influences of 
more precious civil and religious liberty, by,pSlavcry as before. This tendency can and 
through and with our present constitution, than must be counteracted; and when one indepen- 
were ever before secured by any people. Wei dent Congress shall have been elected the in- 
cannot know what portion of these blessings, tcrnal Slave Trade will be subjected to inquiry, 
would be lost by dissolving the present fabric j Amendments to the Constitution may be inl- 
and constructing another or others in its place, tiated and the obstacles in the way of Enianci- 



Hcaven forbid that we should even contem- 
plate the experiment. 

Prudence in regard to the cause oT Emanci- 
pation forbids the indulgence of a thnuglit of 
Disunion. If it be so confessedly difficult to 



pation will no longer appear insurmountable. 

But, Gentlemen, I fear I may appear to .dog- 
matize when I onl}' intended to invoke <;onccs- 
sion. If 1 seem to do so too earnestly, it is be- 
cause I feel so deeply interested in tho cause 



awake the national conscience while the patri- to which your efforts arc devoted, and because 
otism of Abolitionists cannot be justly ques-|I believe with Burke, "that we ought to act in 
•tioned, it would be ruinous to suffer so noble political aflairs with all the moderation which 
an enterprise to be at all connected with dc-|does not absolutely enervate that vigor, and 
signs which however they may be excused or quench that fervency of spirit, without which 
palliated, must nevertheless be seditious and the best wishes for the public good must cvap- 
trcasonablc. I orate in empty speculation." 

I grant that the annexation of Texas, through j I am gentlemen, very respectfully your humble 
the failure of concert among the opponents of servant, William li. Se-w.^ud. 



'J'o S. P. Chase, Samuel Lewis, R, B. PuUac, 
W. Birncv, Owen Uwcus, Committee. 



Slavery, vastly increases the difficulty of Eman- 
cipation. But still I trust that if that great 

enterprise be conducted with discretion, it will — ^^^___ 

advance faster than the populationand ])olitical 

influence of the new Territory. The slave- nll/iciDl Jail's Lrtter. 

holders have enlarged the domain of our coun- „ on i . -i ,o^i- 

try. Let this untoward event only excite us Bedford, 30th April, 184a. 

the more I<ct us rouse ourselves to the ncces- ^ly Dear Sir: — 

>«ary efibrt and enlarge indeed the "Area of| I 'lavc had the honor of receiving through 

.Freedom." | you an invitation from the Committee of Ar- 

Men difl^er much in temperament and suscep-'rangemenls, to attend "the Southern and Wcs- 

tibility, aiul arc .so variously situated that they tern Convention of the friends of constitution- 



receive from the same causes very uncfiual im 
pre.«sions. It is not in. human nature that all 
who desire the abolition of Slavery should be 



al liberty," to be held in Cincinnati, the 11th of 
June. 

Please to present to the committee my ac- 



inflamed witii equal zeal, and different degrcesikno'%vledgments for the favor they have done 
of fervor produce difl'erent opinionaconcerning! nie, and to assure them of the very great sat 



the measures ])roper to be adopted. Great cau 
tion is necessary therefore to preserve mutual 
confidence and harmony. No cause however 
just, can flourish without these. Christian 
Europe lost the Holy Sepulchre, which had cost 
80 many sacrifices, less by the bravery of the 



isfaction it would afford me to accept their in- 
vitation. 

Various circumstances combine in conferring 
peculiar importance on the approaching con- 
vention. To me, the present ajjpears the most 
momentous crisis that has 3'ct occurred in the 



Saracens, than by the mutual controversies ofl history of our country, since the establi.'fhment 
tho Crusaders. The Protestant Reformation 'of the" fedofal government. Probably tiie free- 
was arrested two hundred years afo, by thc!dom, happiness and continuance of our Union 
distraction of the Reformersand not a furlong'sj will depend on tiie events of tlio next twelve 
breadth has since been gained from the Papal inionths. The convention is to be held in Cin- 
Hierarchy. cinnati, and its deliberations will be more or 



I am far from denying that any class of Abo- 
litionists Jias done much good, for their com- 
mon cause, but I think the whole result has 
been much diminished by the angry conflicts 



less influenced by the Abolitionists of Ohio. — 
Those Abolitionists, as far as my observation 
extends, yield to no portion of their brethren, 
n other States, in sound jirinciplc, and in that 



between them, often on mere melauhysical 1 inflexible perseverance which is more generally 

T ■ , . . . . . "^ -' ,- 1 •„ :_ !.l 1... _ _•...• 



questions. I sincerely hope that these con- 
.flicts may now cease Emancipation is now a 
political enterprise, to be effected through the 
•consent and action of the American people. 
They will lend no countenance or favor to any 
other than lawful ujid constitutional means. — 
Nor is the rang* of our eftbrts narrowly cir- 
cumscribed by the Constitution. 

In many of"^ the free States there ie a large 



found in union with calm conscientious con- 
viction, Uian with extravagant and impassioned 
zeal. Hence, I flatter my.stlf that the proceed- 
ings of the convention will ,bc characterized, 
not by intemperate declamation and impracti- 
cable resolves, but by the discretion and firm- 
ness becoming men who feel that the dearest 
interests of tncmsclvcs and their posterity are 
in J€opaidy.. 



20 



Were it in my power, 1 would deem it both 
a priviFegc and a duty to attend the convention. 
But an engagement of a public nature, and one 
long since made, requires me to be in Boston 
the last of May, and I fear it will be impossible 
for me to reach Cincinnati by the lltli of June. 

May the Divine wisdom direct, and the DT- 
vine blessing attend the counsels of the con- 
vention. 

1 remain, my dear sir. 

Yours, very cordially and respectfully, 

WiLLi.iM Jay, 

S, P. Chase, Esq. 



Cassius M. Clnifs Lrttcr. 

Lexixgto.v, May 15th, 1845. 
Messrs. S. P. Chase and others, Cnimnittee, S^c: 
Gentlemen — I have some time 
since received your letter of the ^Ist uJt., invi- 
ting me to attend a Convention, to be held in 
Cincinnati, on the 11th day of June next, of 
"all who, "believing that whatever is worth pre- 
serving in Republicanism, can be maintained 
only by eternal and uncompromising war upon 
the criininal usurpations of the slave power,' 
are resolved House all constitu4ional and hon- 
orable means to effect the extinction of slavery 
in their respective States, and its reduction tn 
its constitutional limits in the United State 
I have held your invitation under respectful 
consideration, and whilst I appreciate your 
kindness, and should be gratified to meet you 
personally in council, I must beg leave to de- 
cline being present on that occasion. The lan- 
guage used by you is my own: it was written 
on the event of the gross usurpation, by the 
two houses of Congress, of- the treaty mak- 
ing power, which is vested by the Constitution 
exclusively in the Senate, representing in ac- 
tion two-thirds of tlie sovereign States of the 
Republic, instead of mere majorities of quorums 
in each house; and this too, with the avowed 
purpose of adding slai-e territory to this Union, 
by wliich you and I were to be deprived yet 
more and more of our equal right of representa- 
tion in our own government. But this lan- 
guage also applies to a systcinatic design on 
the part of the slave party, relentlessly pursued 
from the formation of the Union to the present 
hour, to subject the free labor of this country 
to the slave labor, and to make the freeman of 
the republic tributary to the slaveholders of the 
country-^the slaves of slaves, by suppressing 
the right of petition, trial by jury, liberty of 
speech, freedom of the press, and the right of 
habeas corpus. l\\ view of all which despotic 
acts, (I speak noi now of the right, political or 
natural, of the sovereign States by municipal 
law to hold the African, or any other race, in 
Slavery; with that, as a politician, I disclaim 
having anything to do,) 1 have not scrupled to 
denounce them as "the criminal usurpations of 
the slave power." I declare once nsore that I 
shall never cease to oppose them "by .speech, by 
the pen, by the press, and by the ballot." I go 
for vindicating all these rights, by re-establish- 
ing the broken Constitution, and hy eradicating 
the root of the evil so far as I have legal power. 
I am for abolishing slavery in the District of 
Columbia, by paying the masters an equivalent 
— for enforcing the habeas corpus in all t!ie ter- 
ritories and in all places of exclusive national 
jurisdiction — for the total abolition of all the 
slave clauses in the National Constitution, no 



soon as it can be done by the ballot box. Tlic 
Constitution and laws of the land arc binding 
on me so long as they exisl; but I utterly deny 
that there is, or ever was, or ever was "wea7it" 
to be, any "coM/j/woisc" by which my ancesters 
agreed that I should be enslaved any longer 
than the ballot, in its omnipotence, could strike 
oft' my fetters, and restore me to that political 
equality which, in an evil hour, they deemed 
themselves necessitated to put in temporary 
abeyance. 

Here then is my ground. It is broad enough 
for all parties, and to whoever takes it, I give 
the right hand of fellowship, under whatever 
party organization he may be arrayed. In the 
meantime, I abide the de^<tiny of that party in 
which I have grown to manhood, until some oth- 
er, numbering more friends of liberty than we, 
shall give indication of more speedy success. — 
I claim to be a Whig because I stand upon the 
same gro%nd of the illustrious declarators of 
'76. if the New York Courier and Enquirer 
and others like not the principles of these men, 
let them yield the name also. If they are the 
friends of prerogative, the abettors* of the viola- 
tion of the Constitution, the lovers of despot- 
ism, the advocates of political inequality; if 
they are ^'■conservatives''' only bj' basely submit- 
ting to see every principle of human liberty 
trampled under foot by the slave power, then 
let them strike their colors and go over to the 
enemy I But as for my single self, while there 
is a banner flying, soiled and torn and tram- 
pled though it be, by an unthinking and infatua- 
ted multitude, yet indelibly inscribed with the 
faith of the illustrious dead and living, "Politi- 
cal equality, untrammeled social progress, 'lib- 
erty and union, now and forever;' " there still 
rallying would I be found, with an unconquer- 
able spirit; whether overwhelmed by numbers 
or borne down by superior force, ever ready to 
sacrifice all things but honor and the right, 
those ennobling elements of self-elevation and 
unfailing sccurit}-, which are no more when 
liberty is lost. 

Respectfully, yoijr obedient servant, 

C. M. Cl,AYi-. 

Horace Greclcy''s Letter. 

New Yoke, June 3d, 1845. 

Dear Sir: I received, weeks since, your let. 
ter inviting me to be present at a general Con- 
vention ot opponents of Human Slavery, irre- 
spective of past differences and party organiza- 
tions. I have delayed till the last moment my 
anwer, hoping 1 might this season indulge a 
long cherished desire and purpose by visiting 
your section and city, in which case I should 
certainly have attended your Convention. Be- 
ing now reluctantly compelled to forego or in- 
definitely postpone that visit, I have no re- 
course but to acknowledge your courtesy in a 
leticr. 

In saying that I should have attended your 
Convention, had I been able to visit Cincinnati 
this month, I would by no means be understood 
as implying that 1 would have clnimed to share 
in its deliberations; still less that 1 should have 
boon likely to unite in the course of action to 
which these deliberations will probably tend. 
Whether there "can irue reconcilement grow" 
between those opponents of Slavery whom the 
late Presidential Election arrayed against each 
other in desperate conflict, I do not venture to 



21 



predict. Most surely that larfrc. portion of them 
with wliom / acted, and still act, have been 
continncd in our previous convictions of duty 
by tlie result of that election, and by the mo- 
mentous consequences whicli it has drawn af- 
ter it. Not merely with regard to this question 
of Slavery, but to all questions, I have by that 
result been warned against pledging myself to 
any special and isolated reform in such man- 
ner as to interfere with and fetter my freedom 
and aiiilitv to act decisively and effectively 
upon more general and ijnmediatcly practical 
considerations of National interest and»human 
well-being. You and yours, I understand, have 
been confirmed in an opposite conviction. — 
Time must decide on which side is the right. 

But wiiile I cannot hope that I should have 
been able to unite with you upon any definitive 
course of aetiun to be lienccforLh pursued by 
all opponents of Slavery, irresjicctive of past or 
present differences, I should have gladly met 
you, conferred with you, compared opinions, 
and agreed to act together so far as joint ac- 
tion is not forbidden by conflicting o])inions. 
Animated by this spirit. I shall venture to set 
before you, and ask the Convention to consider, 
some views which I deem essential as bearing 
on the present condition and ultimate success 
of the Anti-Slavery movement. 

What is Slavery? You will probably answer, 
"The legal subjection of one human being to 
the will and power of another." But this defi 
nition a[)|)ears to me inaccurate on both sides 
— too broad, and at the same time too narrow 
It is too broad, in that it includes the subjec- 
tion founded in the jiarental anrl similar rela 
tions; too narrow, in that it excludes the sub 
jection founded in other necessities not less 
stringent than those imposed by statute. We 
must seek some truer definition. 

I understand by Slavery, that condition in 
which one human being exists mainly 'as a con 
venienco forotlier liuman beings, in which the 
time, the exertions, the faculties of a part of 
liie Human Family are made to subserve, not 
their own developement, p!i*iical, intellectual 
and moral, but the comfort, auvantage or capri- 
ces of otJiers. In short, wherever service is 
rendered from one human being to another, 
on a footing of one-sided and not of mutual 
obligation — when the relation between the ser- 
vant and the served is one not of afl'cction and 
reciprocal good offices, but of authoritv, social 
ascendancy and power over subsistence on the 
one hand, and of necessity, servility and degra- 
dation on the other. — there, in my view, is Sla- 
very. 

You will readily understand, therefore, that, 
if I regard your enterprizc with less absorbing 
interest than you do, it is not that I deem Sla- 
very a less, but a greater evil. If I am less 
troubled concerning the Slavery prevalent in 
Charleston Of New Orleans, it is becaiise I 
see so much Slavery in NewYork, which ap- 

riears to claim my first efforts. I rcjo'ce in be- 
ieving that there is less of it in your several 
•communities and jieigliborhoods; but that it 
does exist there I am compelled to believe. In 
esteeming it my duty to preach Reform first to 
my own neighbors and kindred, I would by no 
means attempt to censure those whoso con- 
sciences prescribe a difl'erent course. Still less 
would I undertake to say that the Slavery of 
the South is not more hideous in kind and de 
gree than that which prevails h. the North.— 



The fact that it is more flagrant and palpable, 
renders opposition to it comparatively easy, 
and its speedy downfall certain. But how can 
I devote myself to a crusade against distant 
servitude, when I discern its essence pervading 
my immediate community and neighborhood? 
nay, when I have not yet succeeded in banish- 
ing it even from my own humble household. — 
Wherever may lie the sphere of duty of others, 
is not mine obviously here? 

Let me restate what I conceive to be essen- 
tial characteristics of Human Slavery: 

1. Wherever certain human beings devote 
their time and thoughts mainly to obeying and 
serving other human beings, and this not be- 
cause tbey choose to do so, but because they 
must, there (I think) is Slavery. 

2. Wherever human beings exist in such re- 
lations that a part, because of the position 
they occupy and the functions they perform, 
are generally considered an inferior class to 
those who perform other functions, or none, 
there (I think) is Slavery. 

3. Wherever the ownership of the soil is so 
engrossed by a small part of the community, 
that the far larger number are compelled to pay 
whatever the few may see fit to exact for the 
privilege of occupying and cultivating tho 
earth, there is somotbing very like Slavery. — 
(I rejoice that this stale of things does not, as 
yet, exist in our country.] 

4. Wiicrover opportunity to labor is obtained 
with diinculty, and is so deficient that the em- 
ploying class may virtually prescribe their own 
terms, and pay the laborer only such share as 
they choose of the product, there is a very strong 
tendency to Slavery. 

5. Wherever it is deemed more reputable to 
live without labor than by labor, so that a gen- 
tleman would ratluT be ashamed of his descent 
from a blacksmith, than from an idler or mero 
pleasure-seeker, there is a community not very 
tar from Slavery. And, 

6. Wherever one human being deems if. 
honorable and right to have other human be- 
ings mainly devoted to his or her conveni- 
ence or comfort, and tlms to live, directing the 
labor of these persons from all productive or 
general usefulness to his or her own special 
uses, wliile he or she is rendering or has ren- 
dered no corresponding service to the cause of 
human well-being, there exists the spirit which 
originated and still sustains Human Slavery. 

I might multiply these illustrations indefi- 
nitely, but I dare not so trespass on your pa- 
tience. Rather allow me to apply the princi- 
ples here evolved, in illustration of what I 
deem the duty and policy of Abolitionists in 
reference to tlieir cause. And here I would 
advise — 

1. Oppose Slavery in all ils fortns. Boat 
least as careful not to be a slaveholder as not to 
vote for one. Be as tenacious that vour own 
wives, children, hired men and women, tenants, 
i-c. enjoy the blessings of rational liberty, as 
the slaves of South Carolina. 

2. Be at least as ardint in opposing the near 
as the nirTANT forms of Oppression. It was by 
beginning at home that charity was enabled to 
perform such long journeys, even before the 
construction of rail-roads. And it does seem 
clear to my mind, that if the advocate.? of 
Emancipation would unite in well directed, 
persistent efforts to improve the condition of 
the blacks in their own States and neighbor- 



22 



hooas respectively, the)' could hardly fail to ad- 
vance their cause more rapidly and surely than 
by any other course. Suppose, for example, 
they were to resolve in each State to devote 
their political energies in the first place to a re- 
moval of the shameful, atrocious civil disabili- 
ties and degradations under which the African 
race now o-enerally labor, and to this end were 
to vote svstematically for such candidates, 
whom their votes could probably elect, (if such 
there were,) as were known to favor the re- 
moval of those disabilities, would not their 
success be sure and speedy? But 

3. Look well to the Moral and Social condition 
of the Blacks in the free States. Here is the 
refuo^e of the conscientious slaveholder. H( 
declines emancipatin£r, because he cannot per 
ceive that emancipation has thus far conduced 
to the benefit of the liberated. If the mass of 
the blacks are to remain ignorant, destitute, 
unprincipled, degraded, (as he is told the Free 
Blacks are,) he thinks it better that his should 
remain Slaves. 

I know that the degradation of the Blacks 
is exaggerated. I know that so much of it as 
exists, is mainly owing to their past and pre- 
sent wrongs. But I feel also that the process of 
overcoming this debasement must be slow and 
dubious, while its causes continue to exist. I 
entreat, therefore, tliat those who have the ear 
of these children of Africa and of their phi- 
lanthropic friends, shall consider the propriety 
of providing for them cities of refuge, town- 
■ships — communities, I would say — wherein 
they may dwell apart from the mass of our peo- 
ple, in a social atmosphere of their own, not 
poisoned by the universal conviction of their 
inferiority, at least until they have had a 
chance to show whether they are or are not ne- 
cessarily idle, thriftless, vicious, and content 
with dewradatiou. I most earnestly believe the 

fopularassumptions on these points erroneous; 
ask that the Blacks have a fair chance to 
prove them so. A single township in each 
free State, mainly peopled by them, with 
churches, schools, seminaries for scientific and 
classical education, and all social influences 
untainted by the sense of African humiliation, 
would do more, (if successful, as I doubt not,) 
to pave the way for Universal Freedom, than 
reams of angry vituperation against slave- 
holders. These are in good part men of in- 
tegrity and conscience; they see the vs-rong al- 
most as clearly as you do : it is the right which 
they should see and cannot: will you enable 
them to see it? 

Yours respecfully. 

Horace Greeley. 



Extracts from William GoodeWs Letter. 

HoNEOYE, Ontario Co., N. Y., May 1, 1845. 

"Have we not, in common with the rest of 
our fellow-citizens, greatly erred in admitting 
the legality and constitutionality of slavery, in 
any portion of the Uftited States. To our Ohio 
brethren we have been indebted for some sound 
views (as we think them to be) concerning the 
utter illegality of that slavery which exists not 
only in the District of Columbia, but in Flori- 
da, and in the States formed out of the territo- 
ry included in the Louisiana purchase. As 
the laws by which slaves were held in that ex- 
tensive region ceased to be valid the moment 
that territory came into the possession of the 



Federal Government and under its jurisdiction, 
and as the Federal Government possessed no 
power to create slavery there, it is manifest that 
slavery has been illegal there ever since, and 
can no more be made legal than it can in the 
States formed out of the North West Territory. 

" And how is it in regard to slavery in the 
original thirteen States? It was judicially de- 
cided, long ago, by the Courts of Massachusett.s, 
(and ivithout any legislative enactments abol- 
ishing slavery in that State,) that slaves could 
not be legally held there. And this decision 
is believed to have been made either on the 
ground that the decision of the Somerset case, 
in England, by Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, 
in 1772, rendered slavery illegal throughout the 
then colonies of Great Britain, or on the ground 
of the Declaration of Massachusetts, " that all 
men are born equal,'''' ice. &lc. On either of these 
grounds, what becomes of the legality of 
slavery in any one of the original thirteen 
States? In the very act of declaring them- 
selves Independent States, they enunciated, as 
self-evident, the principles by which the legali- 
ty of slavery is denied. Whether the Declara- 
ration of Independence should be regarded as 
the separate act of the thirteen States, or (which 
seems to be the fact) the confederate act of 
" United States,'''' the result on this question re- 
mains the same. If each separate State is to 
be regarded as having made this sepnrate decla- 
ration of self-evident truths, then, certainly, 
there can be no complaint that it was imposed 
upon the Southern States by the overbearing 
power of the North. But if the Declaration 
was that of " United States,'''' then it formed, 
and still forms, the very basis of American 
Constitutional law. In either case the docu- 
ment has never been repealed nor repudiated 
by a single State in this Union, and stands in 
full force. High legal authorities may be cited 
for the opinion that it is paramount to all 
American Constitutions and laws. 

"The preamble of the Federal Constitution 
Itself, is scarcely less explicit and emphatic." 
***:»• "T^en follow the inhibitions to 
the several States: 'No State shall pass any 
bills of attainder, or laws impairing the obliga- 
tion of contracts.'' What becomes of slavery 
without the attainder of blood? Allow the 
laboring population of the South the validity 
of their contracts, (including the contract of 
marriage,) and what becomes of the slave sys- 
tem? And besides, ' The United States shall 
guaranty to each State in this Uniori a Repub- 
lican form of government.'' And what is a Re- 
publican form of government? If the defini- 
tions of Thomas Jefferson and of Mr. Madison, 
in the 'Federalist,' can supply us with the 
meaning of the terms, then no slaveholding 
Slate can be a Rejrablic. And if this be not 
sufficient, look at the amendments which modi- 
fy or annul, of necessity, whatever in the origi- 
nal Instrument might conflict with it. Like 
the codicil to a will, the amendment must stand, 
whatever becomes of the first written. The 
codicil runs thus: — 'No person shall be de- 
prived of liberty, without due process of law.^ 

'It is common enough to say that slavery is 

violation of the spirit and letter of the Consti- 
tution.'' This is said by many who do not seem 
to reflect that this is only saying in other 
words that Slavery is unconstitutional^-illegaV 
* * * * "Another subject, of no small 
ntcrest, at the present juncture, respects the 



23 



policy to be connected with the political party 
that asks the public support, on the ground, 
mainly, of its uncompromising hostility to the 
slave system." * * * * 

"Monopolies — class legislations of all sorts — 
expedients as substitutes for the fixed laws of 
the commercial world, as God made them, and 
as nature reveals them — what shall the friends 
of human liberty say of these things? And 
what shall they do? Shall they court the al- 
liance and foster the power of a growing and 
rapacious aristocracy at the North, as a means 
of curbing a rival aristocracy of slaveholders 
at the South? Shall it invite the w^orking men 
of the North to aid in that operation? Can it 
do without their assistance, and thus assent to 
their ^unnatural alliance'' with the slave power, 
in self-defence against Northern oppression? 
Which of the two, the aristocracy or the de- 
mocracy of the North, the cafiitalists or the 
laboring masses, most naturally sympathise 
with us; and which would be worth most to 
us in this struggle ? Both of them we can 
hardly expect — nor cither of them, to any ex- 
tent, unless our position he well defined. So it 
seems to me. And I think it evident that these 
questions must be grappled wiih and decided 
in the light of our principles, if we would suc- 
ceed." 



Exlract from Thomas Earle'S Lcllcr. 
Philadelphia, June 3, 1845. 

" I would render a Liberty party democratic : 
firstly, because democracy is but general con- 
sistency with the single principle of opposition 
to slavery, or rather, it is but opposition to ev- 
ery species of slavery; and secondly, because 
the support of democracy is the surest and 
speediest road to success. I would like to see 
n party even more democratic than that which 
sustained the administration of Jcfierson, and 
I believe that such a party, with clearly de- 
fined princij)lcs, would alisorb the genuine 
democratic material from all other parties, and 
soon become the strongest. 

"True democracy embraces three great 
points or principles: 1. Popular Sovereignty; 
2. Equality of Rights; 3. Liberty. 

"1. Popular sovereignty can exist only with 
universal suflVage and short terms of office. 
All attempts to secure order, tranquility, sta- 
bility and freedom, from oppression, without 
the incorporation of these ingredients into the 
frame of government, have ever proved, and I 
think ever will prove, abortive The expe- 
rience of San Marino, of Connecticut, Rhode 
Lsland, and, I believe, some Swiss Cantons, in 
the use of semi-annual elections, prove that no 
terms are so short, especially for the Lcgisla- 
\wx'\ as to be detrimental, otherwise than by 
mere inconvenience; while history demon- 
' truies that no land which has established its 
elections less frequent than annually, has been 
able long to preserve more of the practical 
blessings of good government than are enjoy- 
ed even under absolute despotisms. 

"2. Equality of rights will give to all the 
same privileges, whatever their complexion, 
their birth place, their descent, their wealth, 
or their education. If one man is allowed to 
be a banker, all must be free to become so. 
If one set of men are permitted to use the fa- 
cilities of corporate association for business, all 



other men must be free to associate for the 
same purposes and in the same manner. 

"3. Liberty — true liberty — embraces not 
merely the absence of chattel slavery, but of 
every other restraint not imperiously required 
by the principles of self-defence, and the pal- 
pable necessities of our nature. The majority 
has the right to judge of its own rightful pow- 
er, but it has no right, knowingly, to act the 
tyrant in reference to the minority. It has no 
right to dictate to the minority what machinery, 
tools, currency, or mode of business, it shall 
employ, nor where nor with whom it shall 
trade, nor what kind of contracts it shall make, 
any further than may be evidently required in 
self-defence against fraud or outrage. 

" I think public opinion is sufficiently ad- 
vanced, or in sufficient progress of advance- 
ment, to sustain a consistent party, which shall 
embrace, generally, the foregoing principles, 
and which, in reference to freedom of trade, 
shall go so far as to offer to return gradually to 
mere revenue duties, in reference to all nations 
which will consent to reciprocate our liberality. 

"Opposition to large military and naval 
forces, to high salaries and to extensive patron- 
age, should constitute a part of the creed of a 
democratic party, as being essential to tha 
preservation of liberty, and purity of national 
moralitv." 



Extract from Phincas CrandclVx Lctta'. 
Worcester, Mass., May 29, 1845. 
"I shall bo present with you in mind and 
heart. Although for many years I have been 
at work in the church, for several years I have 
also been at work out of the church. I find I 
can no more divest myself of my political re- 
sponsibilities, than I can of my religious obli- 
gation. They are indeed so blended, that it 
appears imjjossible to separate them — and cs- 
|iecially while such a politically-made enormi- 
ty as that of slavery exists in the land. Wick- 
ed legislation has created and sustains the evil 
— righteous legislation must destroy it. We 
shall have less to do in future in the Church, 
and more to do in the State. The slavchold- 
ing portions of the church are either placing 
tlie work more beyond our reach, or are indi- 
rectly, and without design, doing it themselves. 
Good men are under an obligation to do what 
they can for the destruction of the sin of sla- 
vcr\', and wiien they can do nothing church- 
wise, ;ind can do somelhing State-wise, they 
are botind by the most sacred obligations to do' 
it. Christian profession, and ministerial pro- 
fession, so far from weakening such obliga- 
tions, go very far to increase and strengthen 
them. The elective franchise has been en- 
trusted to us by the providence of God, and the 
God of providence will hold all responsible for 
its ri(>hteous exercise. It is puerile and vain 
for any one to suppose, than any relation to the 
church can exonerate him from the discharge 
of this obligation." 



Extract from Dr. J. F. Lcmoync''s Letter. 
Washingtox, Pa., May 2, 1845. 
"If I shall not be with you in person, you 
will have my sympathy and heart's co-opera- 
tion in every energetic and wise instrumentali- 
ty for the redemption of our fellow man from 
degradation and bonds, and our country from 
infamy and crime." 



'2L 



Extract from Titus Hutchinson''s Letter. 
Woodstock, Vt., May 2(1, 1845. 
" On perusing the Whig papers, which abound 
here, I have speculated some about the course 
and object of their pursuit. I have proposed 
for iny own consideration the following ques- 
tion. If the 250,000 slaveholders, who rule the 
political destinies of the United States, should 
select from among themselves a suitable num- 
ber of their most sagacious politicians, perfect- 
ly devoted to the support of their domestic in- 
stitutions, and send them to the north to man- 
age and control the political papers, what 
course would these pursue? To this question 
I liavc found myself unable to form but one 
answer: which is, that" they would pursue ex- 
actly the same course aimed at by the present 
editors of the Northern political papers. They 
would want to keep the free men of the United 
States divided, nominally, into two great po- 
litical parties, opposed to each other on as 
many collateral questions as they could bring 
to view, yet agreed in the one great object ot 
perpetuating slavery, and denouncing and op- 
posing every movement, and every person, 
wliich would operate against slavery. How 
little do the slaveholders care, how little ought 
they to care, which of the two parties succeed, 
when the success of either is the triumph of 
slavery?" 

Extract from Gerrit SmitJi^s Letter. 
Petersboro', May 1, 1845. 

"I look forw^ard with great interest to the 
proceedings of your Convention. If constitu- 
tional and wise, as I doubt not they will be, 
they will make a great and good impression in 
Kentucky and Western Virginia." 



Extracts from Sam'l Fessenden^s Letter. 
Portland, Me., Juno 2, 1845. 

" I wish by this communication to assure 
you, that nothing could be more desirable to 
me than to attend that, which I cannot hesitate 
to denominate in advance, most glorious Con- 
vention. For glorious it must be, although it 
may not be so on account of the number who 
may assemble, though I fondly hope, in that 
particular, it will far exceed anything which 
has been witnessed in our slave cursed, but yet 
dearly beloved country. 

"But it is glorious, because it will be a Con- 
vention assembled' to vindicate the honor of 
God, in sustaining and promoting the cause of 
humanity, justice and mercy, so openly and 
unblushingly trampled under foot by the iron 
heel of the oppressors, and outraged by the 
accursed system of slavery. Glorious, because 
its object is to wipe from- our Holy Religion 
the foul aspersion, that the slavery which ex- 
ists, and is sustained in our country, is not in- 
consistent with its precepts and requirements. 



Glorious, because, under God, the Principles 
of the Liberty Party, which will be there advo- 
cated, fairly carried out, are the only principles 
which will save, secure, and perpetuate those 
free institutions, to obtain which our fathers 
struggled in the death grapple, and which they 
fondly hoped would be transmitted to their 
posterity. 

" Glorious, on account of the noble hearted 
men who will be there assembled, to devise 
the best means to carry forward the great, holy \ 
and Godlike enterprise to its final consumma- 
tion and triumph. For triumph it must, if God 
designs good to our country, and we, as a na- 
tion, have not so greatly sinned, by enslaving 
our fellow-men, as to draw down upon us his 
wrath to the uttermost. * * * 

" My heart will be with you. My ardent 
prayer will be, that the Convention will be 
guided by wisdom, even by that wisdom which 
God shall give; and that all the members of 
the Convention may act from the purest pa- 
triotism, even from that love of country which 
will seek to purify it from all iniquity, and es- 
pecially from the atrocious sin of slavery, that 
abomination of all abominations; and that our 
country may become as distinguished among 
the nations, for justice and mercy, as she is' 
and has been for privileges and blessings; and 
that the foul blots on her escutcheon may soon' 
be wiped away." 

Extract from John Gilmore'^s Letter. 
Ohio County, Va., March 21, 1845. 

"Though as yet, few names gild our Liberty 
banner, we rejoice in the reflection that the 
seeds of Liberty are fast sowing — seeds which 
no burning suns can scorch, or bleak winters 
kill; and which, ere long, like the vine brought 
from Egypt, will fill the vallies and shade the 
mountains. And as every rill that glides down 
the mountain helps to swell the ocean tide, sa 
may our few names contribute to fill and shake 
the nation's heart, until conquest is gained,, 
victory won." 

Letters were also received frem Lewis Tap-' 
PAN, New York; C. D. Cleveland, Philadel- 
phia; F. D. Parish, Sandusky; Samuel M. 
Pond, Bucksport, Me.; H. B. Stanton, Boston; 
and others, all expressing great interest in the 
Convention, and anxiety for its wise and haf- 
monions action. It is nat necessary, however, 
to give further extracts, which would merely 
reiterate the sentiments of others already given. 
We are gratified in believing that the hopes 
and expectations of all those interested in the 
Convention, will be as fully satisfied by its 
united, decided, and wise action, as were the 
wishes of those in attendance by the number 
and spirit of those who met them. 



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